History of Toilets Timeline

By the 16th century, cesspits and cesspools were increasingly dug into the ground near European houses to collect waste.

Toilets were generally functionally nonexistent in rural Denmark until the 18th century.

In the early 19th century, public officials and public hygiene experts studied and debated sanitation for several decades.

Image source: Sanitation

Twyfords was founded in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, in 1849 by Thomas Twyford and his son Thomas William Twyford.

Construction of underground pipe networks to carry away solid and liquid waste began in the mid-19th century, gradually replacing cesspools, although cesspools remained in use in parts of Paris into the 20th century.

Image source: Sewerage

Water closets began moving from outside buildings to inside homes around 1850.

Integral water closets began being built into middle-class homes during the 1860s and 1870s, initially on principal bedroom floors and in maids' accommodation in larger houses.

Working-class housing transitioned from rural cottages to urban back-to-back terraces with external privies, and then to through terraces of the 1880s with sculleries and individual external water closets.

Adamsez, a long-established British sanitary ware manufacturer, was founded in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1880 by M. J. and S. H. Adams.

The practice of emptying one's own chamber pot, known as slopping out, continued in British prisons until as recently as 2014.

The speed of adoption varied. In 1906, the predominantly working-class town of Rochdale had 750 water closets for a population of 10,000.

The Tudor Walters Report of 1918 recommended suburban cottages with kitchens and internal water closets for semi-skilled workers.

Providing toilets and sanitation services for everyone by 2030 is one of the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6.

In July 2017, slopping out was still used in 85 cells in Ireland.

Toilet was originally a French loanword, first attested in 1540, referring to the toilette, or little cloth, draped over the shoulders during hairdressing.

During the late 17th century, toilet came by metonymy to describe the broader complex of grooming and body care centered on a dressing table, including mirrors, hairbrushes, powder, and makeup containers.

Proposed origins for loo include French l'eau, the warning phrase gare à l'eau, lieu, lieu d'aisance, and lieu à l'anglaise, as well as theories involving hotel room 100, nautical usage, and the preacher Louis Bourdaloue.

The use of toilet for a special room for grooming was first attested in 1819, following the French phrase cabinet de toilette.

During the 20th century, the fixture and room senses of toilet completely supplanted its earlier meanings, except in the word toiletries.

The Oxford English Dictionary notes the 1922 appearance of “How much cost? Waterloo. Watercloset.” in James Joyce's novel Ulysses and discusses proposed connections to the site of Napoleon's 1815 defeat.

Image source: Ulysses (novel)

John Harington designed a precursor to the modern flush toilet system in 1596, though such systems did not become widely used until the late 19th century.

The water closet, originating in Tudor times, began assuming its modern form around 1770, with an overhead cistern, S-bends, soil pipes, and valves.

Scottish mechanic Alexander Cummings invented the S-trap in 1775. The plumbing advance remains in use today.

Image source: Trap (plumbing)

Growing urbanization and industrial prosperity in the mid-19th century helped make the flush toilet a widely used and marketed invention.

William Elvis Sloan invented the Flushometer in 1906. It used pressurized water directly from the supply line to provide a faster recycle time between flushes.

Image source: Flushometer