People like to joke about toilets, but civilization could never have come into existence without a way to dispose of human waste. Thousands of years ago, people started creating innovative technology to remove waste from our homes and businesses — and we’ve never stopped.
Enjoy this chronological list of the innovations that built the foundation for today’s most advanced flush toilets.
- The Indus Valley drainage system (c. 2500 BCE). In the ancient cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, homes had brick latrines connected to covered drains. People would flush them with buckets of well water, and the waste would drain through clay pipes into central cesspits — the world’s earliest sewer system.
- The Roman Cloaca Maxima (c. 600 BCE). “Cloaca Maxima” literally means “Greatest Drainage,” and that’s what it was — the world’s largest, most advanced sewer system for more than 2,000 years. Parts of it are still connected to Rome’s modern system to this day.
- Harington’s “Ajax” (1596). Sir John Harington was an English author prominent at Queen Elizabeth I's court, but his true legacy was the invention of the “Ajax” device. The world’s first working flush toilet included a flush valve to let water out of the tank and a wash-down design to empty the bowl.
- The S-trap (1775). The greatest flaw with the Ajax was that it couldn’t eliminate the smell of waste. Scottish watchmaker Alexander Cummings solved that problem with a simple S-shaped pipe that used water to block sewer gases from escaping. Every modern toilet still uses some version of Cummings’ invention.
- The ballcock valve (1790). For nearly two centuries, toilets needed to be refilled by hand from buckets — until Mexican priest and scientist José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez invented this clever float mechanism that automatically refills the tank after each flush.
- Crapper mass-produced toilets (1870). One of today’s most-used slang words for solid waste derives from the company that popularized flush toilets with standardized parts and improved reliability in 19th-century London. Thomas Crapper & Co. opened its first showroom in 1870 and is still in business today.
- The Sloan Royal® Flushometer (1906). Chicago’s William Elvis Sloan ushered in the modern plumbing era with his invention of the first modern flushometer. The Royal Flushometer let engineers replace gravity-based tank-and-chain fixtures with an innovative valve that required less water and energy.
- Dual-flush toilets (1980). Australia’s frequent droughts inspired Bruce Thompson of Caroma Industries to invent a two-button flushing system that initiates a half-flush for liquid waste and a full-flush for solid waste, significantly reducing water usage.
- Reclaimed water for flushing (1984). Using reclaimed water — from sinks, showers, or even rain gutters — instead of potable water — can significantly reduce water usage. The first large-scale public project to use reclaimed water for toilet flushing was in Tokyo's Shinjuku district in 1984, and many cities now require it for larger new construction projects.
- Pressure-assisted toilets (1984). Pressure-assisted toilets — sometimes known as power flush toilets — are a powerful alternative to gravity toilets that virtually eliminate clogs. They force water into the bowl with compressed air to create a 233% waste-extraction advantage using the same amount of water. Flushmate introduced pressure-assisted toilet technology in 1984 and continues to lead the industry in innovation and reliability.
Pressure-assisted toilets can help you save water, eliminate clogs, and maintain a cleaner-looking restroom in any residential or commercial setting. Talk to the experts at Flushmate to learn more.