FLUSH TOILETAbdulrahman Darwish

Introduction The flush toilet is an invention that

changed the world. All over the world today we use the flush toilet. It helps us flush our waste down the drain and which help us keeps our toilets cleaner.

Explanation of Problem The out house was the toilet we had before the

flush toilet. Imagine you are cozy in your bed under the blankets then you need to go to the toilet, you cant hold it, you go outside in the cold weather and dark night. You enter the outhouse but it has no toilet paper just some leaves on the floor.. All the waste in the out house goes in a hole underground! Neat? I think not. Imagine the smell if someone wants to go after you. Today we have one clean bathroom just right across the hall with a nice warm rug on the floor and some toilet paper and a wash and a flush too take the waste away. If there is another person after you there is a clean toilet waiting for him/her.

Biography of Inventor. Sir John Harrington: Sir John Harrington was born in

England in 1561. His father was called John Harrington and he was a poet. His mother was called Isabella Markhan who worked in Queen Elizabeth’s I privy chamber. He was lucky to be become one of Queen Elizabeth’s I godchildren. John Harrington was educated at Eton and King College, Cambridge. He invented the flush toilet for his godmother Elizabeth I. Harrington got ill in May 1612 and died 6 months later. He was 51 years old.

Thomas Crapper: Thomas Crapper was born in 1836. Mr. Crapper developed the toilet that Sir John Harrington invented. His father was called Charles and worked as a sailor and his brother George was an excellent plumber who worked in Chelsea. He worked for his brother and that is where his interest in plumbing and engineering started. Thomas Crapper was the first person to sell to toilets in a shop in the 1880’s and his company was called Thomas Crapper and Co. Thomas Crapper died in the year 1910.

Inventors.

1.Mr. Thomas Crapper 2.John Harrington

How did the toilet come to be? Sir John Harrington invented the toilet for

his godmother Queen Elizabeth I. He didn’t want the queen to go to an outhouse as he thought it was not suitable for the queen. He wanted the queen to feel special and not have to go all the way out.

How does the flush toilet work? The most important part of the flush toilet is a pipe

called Siphon. This pipe takes the waste from the toilet down into the sewer. There is a handle to press so that the toilet flushes. The water used for flushing is in a tank called a cistern. The tank has many important parts. The inlet valve controls the water supply coming inside the tank. When the tank is empty it lets water in. When the tank is full it stops water coming in. The float ball rises when the tank gets filled with water. When it rises the float rod presses against the inlet valve hard enough for the water to be off. When that happens it stops the tank from flowing.

Inside the Tank of a Flush Toilet

How does the invention solve the problem.

This invention helped Queen Elizabeth I by allowing her to have a better, cleaner and closer place to go to the toilet. It also helped Thomas Crapper develop an invention that would let any regular person have a flush toilet in his house. It helped everyone stop having out houses that were dirty and smelly and instead have a clean toilet that gets rid of human waste easily.

What humans did before flush toilet.

Since the ancient times people had sophisticated toilets. Farmers in the Stone Age had drains built under their huts, which might have been used for toilets. In ancient Egypt people had proper bathrooms in their homes. Toilet seats in rich people’s homes were made out of limestone and in poor people’s homes there was a wooden stool with a hole in it. Underneath these toilets were a pot filled with sand, which had to be emptied by hand. Also the Greeks and Roman civilizations had public restrooms. Romans weren’t concerned with privacy and they sat next to each other while going to the bathroom. Their toilet seats were built over water filled ditches. These toilets disappeared along with the civilizations they came from. After these times for many centuries in Europe people used a pit in the ground or a pot to go to the toilet. In the Middle Ages monks began building toilets over rivers. Even in the 19th century most people’s toilets were in outhouses, which is a small structure apart from the main building, which often contains a simple pit toilet. Mr. Crapper did not invent the toilet but improved it so that it became easier to build a toilet inside the house. Today there are hardly any outhouses and everyone uses the flush toilet.

How Flush Toilets Improved Human Life

This invention has improved human life in many ways. It improved by flushing our waste down the drain and it made towns, houses, and cities much cleaner to live in. There is less pollution now from human waste on the street, roads and sidewalks. The places where we live now have less pollution. This causes fewer diseases to spread as it had in the past. It is also much more easier and convenient to go to the toilet and the risk of getting sick from using the toilet has decreased. The water in the toilet bowl that washes the waste away is a much easier way than having to clean the waste by hand and clean the pit by hand. It is also easier for houses to be close to each other as there are no out houses. Cities can get bigger and people can get healthier from the flush toilet.

Improvements to the Flush Toilet

The first flush toilet in 1596 invented by Harrington was a very basic design that had a large bowl to sit on, and large handle to flush. Also the Siphon pipe that took the waste away was very bulky. Mr. Crapper greatly improved this design and made the system of flushing much better. He also improved the pipes and the plumbing system. Through time the design of the toilet changed to become more comfortable and more luxurious. Also technology helped make the piping and plumbing more advanced. Also architects and designers have made bathrooms an important room in the house or a building.

Photos to show how the Flush Toilet developed

Harrington's Toilet in 1596 Crapper’s Toilet in 1880’s

More developments to the Flush Toilet

1920’s Bathroom1950’s Toilet

A Modern Toilet

Challenges to Human Life The flush toilet has created some challenges to human life. We

have to make sure the toilet in a house or building is put in a proper place. Also proper plumbing for the pipes is important or many problems will start to happen. When a problem does happen we have to call a professional person to solve the problem. Also when a part of the tank or toilet gets damaged it has to be replaced with a spare part and if that is not available then the toilet cannot be fixed and has to be replaced. Another problem is that sometimes the water in the toilet does not wash all the bacteria away and if the toilet does not get cleaned properly it can cause viruses or bacteria. Plumbers have to be educated to the system of the flush toilet in order to fix it. Also the sewage system has to be advanced so that it does not overflow or cause any damage to the environment. Sometimes sewages are released into rivers or oceans which can cause great damage to the environment. Governments have to make sure that this does not happen by putting rules to stop this.

Timeline of the History of the Flush Toilet.

C 2,300 BC At Skara Brae in Scotland stone huts have drains with cubicles over them. They may have been toilets. C 2,000 BC In Northwest India and Pakistan towns are built with networks of sewers. Toilets are flushed with water. C 1,800 BC On Crete some toilets are flushed with water C 1,200 BC In Egypt rich people use a container with sand, which is emptied by slaves. C 100 AD In Rome sewers collect rainwater and sewage. There are public lavatories. The Romans have a goddess of

sewers called Cloacina .476 The Roman Empire falls and in Western Europe sophisticated plumbing vanishes for centuries 12th Century Monks in Portchester, England build a stone ledge on a wall overhanging the sea. The ledge has holes

in it and the tide carries away sewage. 1200 In castles the toilet is a vertical shaft cut into the thickness of the walls with a stone seat on top.1500 Ordinary

people often use the leaves of a plant called woolly mullein as toilet paper 1547 People are forbidden to go in the courtyards of royal palaces 1596 Sir John Harrington invents a flushing toilet but the idea fails to catch on. People continue to use pits, which

are cleaned by men called gong farmers. 1775 Alexander Cumming patents a flushing lavatory 1778 Joseph Brahmah makes a better design 1850 Earth closets are popular. When you pull a lever granulated clay from a box covers the contents of the pan. 1852 The first modern public lavatory opens 1857 Toilet paper goes on sale. It is sold in sheets. 1883 The vacant/engaged bolt is invented 1884 The first pedestal toilet pan is made 1900 For the first time some houses for skilled workers are built with inside lavatories 1928 Toilet paper on rolls goes on sale 1942 Soft toilet paper goes on sale 2001 The World Toilet Organization is formed

Source List http://www.localhistories.org/toilettime.ht

ml http://www.localhistories.org/toilets.html http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior:Ho

w_Things_Work/Flush_Toilet#How_does_it_work.3F

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harington_(writer) (Also Image)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapper (Also Image)

Getting To Know Your Toilet: By Connie Colwell Miller.