Posted on Jan 27, 2018
Why is The Toilet Commonly Known as the Crapper (or John)?
3.93K
65
24
19
19
0
Well ! It is about time to talk Crap ! It has many names from history and even new ones today. Some examples of this are , The Throne, John, crapper, porcelain alter,The head, latrine, and of course many more that I cannot think of at the present time . Great inventions in history was made out of necessity and health.
The legend of Thomas Crapper
Thomas Crapper (1836–1910) is remembered as “the inventor of the flushing toilet”. But how much of what we think we know about Crapper is true? Robert Hume examines five persistent myths about this 19th-century pioneer…
Myth 1
Thomas Crapper never even existed
It has been widely assumed that the story of Thomas Crapper is the humorous invention of a satirical writer. This may have resulted from a spoof biography, Flushed with Pride, by Wallace Reyburn (1969) which is full of jokes and puns.
Reality: Thomas Crapper existed. A certificate in Doncaster Archives (ref P4/1/A12) confirms that he was baptised on 28 September 1836 in St Nicholas church, Thorne, south Yorkshire. His life can be traced from census returns, parish records and street directories.
Crapper set up his sanitary works in Chelsea and married his cousin, Maria Green, in 1860. In the 1891 census, Thomas is styled a ‘Sanitary Engineer’, commuting to London from his home in Brighton. In 1895 he returned to the London suburbs, settling at No 12 Thornsett Road, Anerley, where a commemorative blue plaque can be seen on the wall today. By this time, Crapper had taken out nine patents related to sanitary ware, copies of which are held in Kensington Library. His death certificate records that on 27 January 1910, aged 73, he died from bowel cancer.
Myth 2
In 1848, at the age of 11, “he walked from Yorkshire to London in search of work”
Reality: No he didn’t. The census shows that he was still at school until at least 1851 when he was 14 years old. Probably he attended the Brooke’s Trust School in Thorne.
It is most unlikely that he walked to London. Why should he? His family were not that poor. His father was the captain of a steamboat and his cousins were also in the shipping business, so it would have been easy for him to have gone by boat.
Furthermore, he had no need to ‘search’ for work. His brother George was a master plumber in London. He had several men working for him, and was happy to take Thomas on as an apprentice in 1853 and give him an attic room in his house in Robert Street, Chelsea.
Myth 3
Thomas Crapper invented the flushing toilet
Reality: Untrue. As early as 1449, in London, Thomas Brightfield had designed a toilet that flushed with water from a cistern. In 1596, Sir John Harington built a flushing toilet at his house near Bath for the visit of his godmother, Queen Elizabeth I. But it was expensive to install, so most people carried on using chamber pots.
Until the end of the 19th century, toilets were often poorly designed. Valves leaked and huge quantities of clean water were wasted. Many people were afraid of the risk to their ceilings and furniture by having water, under pressure, piped throughout their house. Others considered the idea of defecating within the home abhorrent. Chamber pots and commodes were intended mainly for urine; if you needed to empty your bowels you used the privy, outside.
The Metropolis Water Act (1871) required manufacturers to build into their cisterns a mechanism called a ‘water waste preventer’. Crapper was not responsible for any major improvements in water waste preventers, though he did build silencers to cut down the hissing and gurgling noises that cisterns made when filling. Nor were all Crapper’s systems reliable. One of them, with an automatic flush and self-raising seat, was so accident-prone that it came to be known as the ‘bottom slapper’!
Thomas Crapper’s real achievement was that he helped to bring about a change in public attitude by his invention of the first bathroom showroom in the world in Chelsea. Many of his WCs, basins and baths were plumbed in, so customers could even try them out! Previously, if you wished to order sanitary ware, a salesman would visit your home with a catalogue and some samples only a few inches high. It was due in no small part to Crapper that people became less embarrassed about purchasing sanitary ware in public.
Myth 4
He was knighted, becoming Sir Thomas Crapper
Another popular myth is that Thomas Crapper’s plumbing work was so admired by the royal family that he was knighted by Queen Victoria. He is sometimes even referred to as ‘Sir John Crapper’.
Reality: No he wasn’t. He ended his days as plain ‘Mr’ Crapper. But it is easy to see how the misunderstanding has arisen because he did have many dealings with royalty. In the late 1880s the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) asked him to install the lavatories and drains at Sandringham House. This royal commission gave him the right to display at his Marlboro’ Works in Chelsea an eye-catching royal crest painted blue, red and gold and the words, ‘By Appointment’.
Crapper was also responsible for supplying lavatories to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. He laid the drains at the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley, and at Westminster Abbey, where three cast-iron manhole covers can be seen to this day bearing his name.
As for ‘Sir John’ Crapper, it is most probably confused with Sir John Harington, Elizabeth I’s godson (see myth 3).
The word ‘crap’ derives from his name
Wiki Answers: “Q: What is the history behind the word ‘crap’? A: Most people associate it to Thomas Crapper, who invented the flushing toilet”.
Reality: Untrue. The word has no connection with Thomas Crapper. It first appears in JC Hotten’s A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words (1859): “CRAP, to ease oneself, to evacuate”. Thomas Crapper did not even set up his business until 1861, let alone become famous.
The expression, a ‘crapping ken’, meaning a privy or water-closet, was used in 1846 in The Swell’s Night Guide to social life in London, when Thomas was just ten years old. In fact, research suggests that Thomas had a traditional Yorkshire name which was originally ‘Cropper’ – someone who brings in the crops. It is possible, however, that the American word ‘crapper’, in the sense of a lavatory, is derived from Thomas Crapper. When US soldiers were based in England in 1917 they probably saw cisterns stamped with “T Crapper” in some public toilets, and may have taken the word ‘crapper’ home with them. Certainly, Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang records the word ‘crapper’ as a synonym for a toilet, in use from the 1920s.
Thomas Crapper (1836–1910)
1836 Born in Thorne, south Yorkshire
1853 Apprenticed to his brother George, a master plumber in Chelsea
1860 Married his cousin Maria Green
1861 Founded his own plumbing business at Marlboro’ Cottages in Chelsea
1862 A son, John Green Crapper, was born. Died in 1863
1866 Built the first bathroom showroom in the world in Marlborough Road, Chelsea. He used ‘shock tactics’ to display his white toilet pans to the public behind large plate glass windows. Some ladies who passed the windows are said to have fainted at the sight!
1887 Royal commission to supply plumbing for Sandringham House. Thirty water closets with cedar seats were installed, as well as flushing urinals for a room adjoining the billiards room
1902 His wife died
1904 Thomas retired, passing the firm to his nephew George and his business partner Robert Marr Wharam
1910 Thomas died and was buried in Elmer’s End cemetery, Beckenham
http://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/the-legend-of-thomas-crapper/
https://www.thomas-crapper.com/The-History-of-Thomas-Crapper.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/three-true-things-about-sanitary-engineer-thomas-crapper-180965008/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapper
Additional videos : More crap !
https://youtu.be/GWQG1YZS9l4
https://youtu.be/WNUuJfshDGI
@ col mikel COL Mikel J. Burroughs @ @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen F. @ ltc wayne LTC Wayne Brandon @ ltc frank LTC (Join to see) @ maj stephen LTC (Join to see) @ maj william Maj William W. 'Bill' Price @ capt tom Capt Tom Brown @ capt marty Maj Marty Hogan @ smsmgt doc SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas @ tsgt joe TSgt Joe C. @ sra christopher SrA Christopher B. @ msg andrew MSG Andrew White @ ssg robert SSG Robert Webster @ sgt jim SGT Jim Arnold @ sgt randy Sgt Randy Wilber @ sgt david SGT (Join to see) SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth @ sp5 mark SP5 Mark Kuzinski @ cpl dave CPL Dave Hoover @ po1 chip PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
The legend of Thomas Crapper
Thomas Crapper (1836–1910) is remembered as “the inventor of the flushing toilet”. But how much of what we think we know about Crapper is true? Robert Hume examines five persistent myths about this 19th-century pioneer…
Myth 1
Thomas Crapper never even existed
It has been widely assumed that the story of Thomas Crapper is the humorous invention of a satirical writer. This may have resulted from a spoof biography, Flushed with Pride, by Wallace Reyburn (1969) which is full of jokes and puns.
Reality: Thomas Crapper existed. A certificate in Doncaster Archives (ref P4/1/A12) confirms that he was baptised on 28 September 1836 in St Nicholas church, Thorne, south Yorkshire. His life can be traced from census returns, parish records and street directories.
Crapper set up his sanitary works in Chelsea and married his cousin, Maria Green, in 1860. In the 1891 census, Thomas is styled a ‘Sanitary Engineer’, commuting to London from his home in Brighton. In 1895 he returned to the London suburbs, settling at No 12 Thornsett Road, Anerley, where a commemorative blue plaque can be seen on the wall today. By this time, Crapper had taken out nine patents related to sanitary ware, copies of which are held in Kensington Library. His death certificate records that on 27 January 1910, aged 73, he died from bowel cancer.
Myth 2
In 1848, at the age of 11, “he walked from Yorkshire to London in search of work”
Reality: No he didn’t. The census shows that he was still at school until at least 1851 when he was 14 years old. Probably he attended the Brooke’s Trust School in Thorne.
It is most unlikely that he walked to London. Why should he? His family were not that poor. His father was the captain of a steamboat and his cousins were also in the shipping business, so it would have been easy for him to have gone by boat.
Furthermore, he had no need to ‘search’ for work. His brother George was a master plumber in London. He had several men working for him, and was happy to take Thomas on as an apprentice in 1853 and give him an attic room in his house in Robert Street, Chelsea.
Myth 3
Thomas Crapper invented the flushing toilet
Reality: Untrue. As early as 1449, in London, Thomas Brightfield had designed a toilet that flushed with water from a cistern. In 1596, Sir John Harington built a flushing toilet at his house near Bath for the visit of his godmother, Queen Elizabeth I. But it was expensive to install, so most people carried on using chamber pots.
Until the end of the 19th century, toilets were often poorly designed. Valves leaked and huge quantities of clean water were wasted. Many people were afraid of the risk to their ceilings and furniture by having water, under pressure, piped throughout their house. Others considered the idea of defecating within the home abhorrent. Chamber pots and commodes were intended mainly for urine; if you needed to empty your bowels you used the privy, outside.
The Metropolis Water Act (1871) required manufacturers to build into their cisterns a mechanism called a ‘water waste preventer’. Crapper was not responsible for any major improvements in water waste preventers, though he did build silencers to cut down the hissing and gurgling noises that cisterns made when filling. Nor were all Crapper’s systems reliable. One of them, with an automatic flush and self-raising seat, was so accident-prone that it came to be known as the ‘bottom slapper’!
Thomas Crapper’s real achievement was that he helped to bring about a change in public attitude by his invention of the first bathroom showroom in the world in Chelsea. Many of his WCs, basins and baths were plumbed in, so customers could even try them out! Previously, if you wished to order sanitary ware, a salesman would visit your home with a catalogue and some samples only a few inches high. It was due in no small part to Crapper that people became less embarrassed about purchasing sanitary ware in public.
Myth 4
He was knighted, becoming Sir Thomas Crapper
Another popular myth is that Thomas Crapper’s plumbing work was so admired by the royal family that he was knighted by Queen Victoria. He is sometimes even referred to as ‘Sir John Crapper’.
Reality: No he wasn’t. He ended his days as plain ‘Mr’ Crapper. But it is easy to see how the misunderstanding has arisen because he did have many dealings with royalty. In the late 1880s the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) asked him to install the lavatories and drains at Sandringham House. This royal commission gave him the right to display at his Marlboro’ Works in Chelsea an eye-catching royal crest painted blue, red and gold and the words, ‘By Appointment’.
Crapper was also responsible for supplying lavatories to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. He laid the drains at the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley, and at Westminster Abbey, where three cast-iron manhole covers can be seen to this day bearing his name.
As for ‘Sir John’ Crapper, it is most probably confused with Sir John Harington, Elizabeth I’s godson (see myth 3).
The word ‘crap’ derives from his name
Wiki Answers: “Q: What is the history behind the word ‘crap’? A: Most people associate it to Thomas Crapper, who invented the flushing toilet”.
Reality: Untrue. The word has no connection with Thomas Crapper. It first appears in JC Hotten’s A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words (1859): “CRAP, to ease oneself, to evacuate”. Thomas Crapper did not even set up his business until 1861, let alone become famous.
The expression, a ‘crapping ken’, meaning a privy or water-closet, was used in 1846 in The Swell’s Night Guide to social life in London, when Thomas was just ten years old. In fact, research suggests that Thomas had a traditional Yorkshire name which was originally ‘Cropper’ – someone who brings in the crops. It is possible, however, that the American word ‘crapper’, in the sense of a lavatory, is derived from Thomas Crapper. When US soldiers were based in England in 1917 they probably saw cisterns stamped with “T Crapper” in some public toilets, and may have taken the word ‘crapper’ home with them. Certainly, Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang records the word ‘crapper’ as a synonym for a toilet, in use from the 1920s.
Thomas Crapper (1836–1910)
1836 Born in Thorne, south Yorkshire
1853 Apprenticed to his brother George, a master plumber in Chelsea
1860 Married his cousin Maria Green
1861 Founded his own plumbing business at Marlboro’ Cottages in Chelsea
1862 A son, John Green Crapper, was born. Died in 1863
1866 Built the first bathroom showroom in the world in Marlborough Road, Chelsea. He used ‘shock tactics’ to display his white toilet pans to the public behind large plate glass windows. Some ladies who passed the windows are said to have fainted at the sight!
1887 Royal commission to supply plumbing for Sandringham House. Thirty water closets with cedar seats were installed, as well as flushing urinals for a room adjoining the billiards room
1902 His wife died
1904 Thomas retired, passing the firm to his nephew George and his business partner Robert Marr Wharam
1910 Thomas died and was buried in Elmer’s End cemetery, Beckenham
http://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/the-legend-of-thomas-crapper/
https://www.thomas-crapper.com/The-History-of-Thomas-Crapper.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/three-true-things-about-sanitary-engineer-thomas-crapper-180965008/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapper
Additional videos : More crap !
https://youtu.be/GWQG1YZS9l4
https://youtu.be/WNUuJfshDGI
@ col mikel COL Mikel J. Burroughs @ @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen F. @ ltc wayne LTC Wayne Brandon @ ltc frank LTC (Join to see) @ maj stephen LTC (Join to see) @ maj william Maj William W. 'Bill' Price @ capt tom Capt Tom Brown @ capt marty Maj Marty Hogan @ smsmgt doc SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas @ tsgt joe TSgt Joe C. @ sra christopher SrA Christopher B. @ msg andrew MSG Andrew White @ ssg robert SSG Robert Webster @ sgt jim SGT Jim Arnold @ sgt randy Sgt Randy Wilber @ sgt david SGT (Join to see) SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth @ sp5 mark SP5 Mark Kuzinski @ cpl dave CPL Dave Hoover @ po1 chip PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
Health
World History
Inventing
Innovation
Waste
Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 10
6
6
0
5
5
0
The Truth About Thomas Crapper
A tiny history lesson on toilets and the guy who didn't invent them, Thomas Crapper.
I am very familiar with the background of Thomas Crapper SGT John " Mac " McConnell
FYI today is Thomas Crapper Day which commemorates the death, on January 27, 1910, "of the man widely believed to have invented the flush toilet. Although that is, as they say, crap, Crapper was a shrewd marketer, leveraging his status as plumber to the British royal family to popularize indoor plumbing. He owned the first showroom of bathroom facilities and publicized the toilet at a time when no one spoke of such “necessities.”
Crapper is one small part of the largely untold history of the device that transformed the world. Humans have been building indoor plumbing for millennia. Excavations have shown evidence of flushing toilets dating back as far as 2600 B.C., during the mature Harappan phase of the Indus Valley Civilization.
From worldwideweirdholidays.com/january-27-thomas-crapper-day/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snJzSapH9jU
Image: In Honor of Thomas Crapper Day; Thomas Crapper;
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Orlando Illi LTC (Join to see) LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Jeff S. CPT Jack Durish MSgt Robert C Aldi SFC Stephen King MSgt Danny Hope SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SGT Gregory Lawritson Cpl Craig Marton SP5 Mark Kuzinski
FYI today is Thomas Crapper Day which commemorates the death, on January 27, 1910, "of the man widely believed to have invented the flush toilet. Although that is, as they say, crap, Crapper was a shrewd marketer, leveraging his status as plumber to the British royal family to popularize indoor plumbing. He owned the first showroom of bathroom facilities and publicized the toilet at a time when no one spoke of such “necessities.”
Crapper is one small part of the largely untold history of the device that transformed the world. Humans have been building indoor plumbing for millennia. Excavations have shown evidence of flushing toilets dating back as far as 2600 B.C., during the mature Harappan phase of the Indus Valley Civilization.
From worldwideweirdholidays.com/january-27-thomas-crapper-day/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snJzSapH9jU
Image: In Honor of Thomas Crapper Day; Thomas Crapper;
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Orlando Illi LTC (Join to see) LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Jeff S. CPT Jack Durish MSgt Robert C Aldi SFC Stephen King MSgt Danny Hope SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SGT Gregory Lawritson Cpl Craig Marton SP5 Mark Kuzinski
(5)
(0)
SGT John " Mac " McConnell
Thanks for the addition LTC Stephen F. . Thanks for helping me sort this crap out. Laffs ! Have a great day my friend.
(1)
(0)
4
4
0
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google