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When Was Indoor Plumbing Invented?

 

It’s hard to imagine life without indoor plumbing. More than 700 users a month sit on their porcelain thrones and query Google or Siri: “Just when was indoor plumbing invented anyway?” 

Jim Cunningham of Trusted Plumbing and Heating has some answers. “Plumbing in one form or another has been around as early as 4000 BC, but the invention of more modern plumbing like flushing toilets happened in the 1500s,” Jim said.

Contrary to folklore, Thomas Crapper was not the inventor of the toilet. The first flushing toilet was invented by John Harrington in 1596, hence the saying “use the John.” Thomas Crapper did, however, hold three patents for water closet improvement such as the floating ballcock, but not the toilet itself.

In the late 1800s, flushing toilets came to Seattle, and by 1905 the city of Seattle required all houses to have one flushing toilet and one sink, bringing Seattle out of the middle ages and into polite society with modern indoor plumbing!

Call the experts at Trusted Plumbing and Heating for all your plumbing needs.