Have you ever stopped to think about how vital modern plumbing is to your life? Every time you wash your hands, drink a cup of water, or use the bathroom, it seems like such an ordinary thing. Hard to imagine that these things have only been around for a few hundred years at most!
Here are a few of the ways plumbing has changed the way we do things:
Clean Hands – The Ancient Romans and Greeks did have some access to running water, but only in the large cities with aqueducts and complicated plumbing systems. For most people, water had to be drawn from the well or hauled from the river. Few cared about washing their hands, making sparkling clean, bacteria and germ-free hands a very modern trend!
Flush Toilets – The outhouse (complete with a dug pit) was the most “modern” style of toilet until just a few hundred years ago. Thomas Crapper helped to make flush toilets the go-to choice for bathrooms around first England, then Europe, then the world. His invention of bathroom fittings changed the way we view our toilets.
Water Closets – There was a time when you had to actually leave the house and go to an outhouse to use the bathroom. With the invention of sewage lines and flush toilets, it became possible to install toilets inside the house. Thus, when a room was required where people could use the bathroom in privacy, the water closet was born. Now it’s hard to imagine homes without at least one or two bathrooms!
Hot Water on Demand – All you do is turn on the tap and, voila, water comes out piping hot! No need to boil a pot of water or even put the kettle on! Thanks to modern boilers/water heaters, you can have hot water within seconds to shower, wash, or bathe.
Sewage Lines – Sewer systems have existed since the Roman days, but they were largely unused. The first underground sewer lines were built in the 1700s. Before that, sewage and refuse was tossed into the streets to run through the gutters. Disgusting, so thank God modern plumbing has found a way to run sewage through PVC pipes into the underground sewer systems!
We take our modern plumbing for granted right up until the moment it stops working. Then we realize just how complex the plumbing systems can be. Thankfully, you’ll find we’re the best 24-hour plumber Los Angeles has to offer. If you want an emergency plumber in Los Angeles you can trust, always call Ford’s Plumbing!
