People have always had to relieve themselves whether it was the Roman use of running water to carry off waste or the Middle Age use of chamber pots that would be emptied out a window in the morning. Sir John Harrington invented a type of flushing toilet for his Godmother, Queen Elizabeth I, in 1596 as a way to get back in her good graces after a falling out. It took the 1832 epidemic of cholera in Europe which killed millions to make people realize that poor sanitation was responsible for the spread of disease. It led to sewers being cleaned and rebuilt in France and the British passing of laws that required houses to have some sort of flushing toilet.

In 1872 British plumber Thomas Crapper developed a flushing toilet but his main achievement was the refinement of the tank that held the water and made flushing quieter. American soldiers returning from England during World War I referred the toilet as the Crapper. The toilet was a status symbol for Victorian age and was frequently decorated with hand paintings or sculpture.

Isaiah Rogers designed Boston’s Tremont Hotel in 1829 which was the first hotel to have indoor plumbing and boasted 8 toilets on the first floor. By the decade of the 1860s many flushing toilets had been imported from England by wealthy Americans. These units had tanks mounted well above the bowl and were operated by pulling a chain. The water tank moved closer to the bowls and by about 1920 the tank and bowl became a single unit and took on the design of the toilets we are familiar with today.

The effort to conserve water has led to low flow toilets that only use 1.6 gallons of water or units that recycle water from the sink into the toilet tank. We are all familiar with the rural outhouse and the half moon shape on the door or images of people dashing across their yard in urgency. Indoor flushing toilets have become a ubiquitous part of society and are taken for granted but the next time you flush a toilet be thankful for the development of indoor plumbing.

The evolution of society invariably altered the customs and cultures of our ancestors while leaving a multitude of relics in its wake. We offer our patrons a grand selection of museum quality replicas that we hope will awaken a interest in those bygone eras. Choose from reenactment gear, historical display items, functional technology reproductions, replica ships and many more items!

History DVDs & History CDs Cuirassier’s Toilette, 1806. Scale Model Kit Andrea Miniatures Spain 1:32 (54mm) World War II Newsreels 4 DVD Film Library Grand Resorts II, The: Grand Hotel, Hotel del Coronado, Mission Inn DVD Grand Resorts, The: Greenbrier, Hotel Hershey & Mohunk Mountain House DVD

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