You can’t hold on much longer. You try to distract yourself by looking at

the floor, the colorful tiles mixing together as you race down the cafeteria. But

then you pass someone drinking from a water fountain, the sounds of flowing

water ringing in your ears. Swish, splash, gurgle. You’re not sure you’re going

to make it. Then you see it. The bathroom, with the toilet sign next to the door.

You breathe a sigh of relief. You’re going to make it. You’re saved from a watery

embarrassment.

The urinal. The water-closet. The latrine. The loo. The toilet. Whatever

names you call this revolutionary invention, it doesn’t change the fact that the

toilet is one of the most important inventions whatever names you call this

revolutionary invention; it doesn’t change the fact that the toilet created. But

how did it come to be?

Well, it all started centuries ago, when the toilet was just a hole in the

ground. That’s right. The primitive toilet was just a small space, dug into the

earth. “Toilet paper” was leaves, rocks, small flat rocks. Anything you could

get your hands on, really. In Ancient Egypt, toilets worked with running water.

In Ancient Rome, however, the toilet was a little more elaborate. Bathhouses

consisted of holes in the ground. Powerful channels of water, coming from the

nearest bath, would push the expelled matter into a river or stream far away.

Our ancestors had marvelous ideas of how to make the toilet, but after the

destruction of the Roman Empire, mankind was back to going to the bathroom in

a hole.

But in the cities of Europe, like France, Paris, and Prague, the toilet was

a hollow block of stone with a seat on top. There was a hole cut under the seat,

revealing a tube that ended at the side of a building. The ejected matter would

flow through the tube, and drop out onto the streets below. Pretty unfortunate

if you were walking by the drop zone. Sometime, however, the matter would be

dumped in a nearby river or lake. Because of all the pollution in the lakes and

streams, water was too dirty and foul to drink. Because no one could drink the

water, you could find kids drinking beer and whiskey as a substitute. In some

cases, when you couldn’t dump your waste in the water, or the streets, the waste

would be transferred to a cesspit. A cesspit is a room or space under the toilet,

where your waste would pile up. But about every week, someone had to clean

up the cesspit. Believe it or not, there was a job that entailed cleaned out the

cesspits. It was a

disgusting job, with a title to match: The Gong-Scourer.

In the 1650s, however, the second flushing toilet was finally remade

in Versailles, thanks to John Harrington's original invention and design.

Before I continue, let me tell you a story about Sir John Harrington, godson of

Queen Elizabeth I. Unfortunately for John Harrington, he loved telling stories.

Inappropriate stories, to be exact. When he told one of them to Queen Elizabeth,

she banished him to Kelston. During this period of exile, John built a house and

designed and created the first flushing toilet, which he called Ajax. Eventually,

In 1592, Queen Elizabeth forgave her godson, and visited his house in Kelston,

where Harrington showed her the toilet, and she was very impressed. After his

death, only one toilet remained, hidden from the people of the world. The toilet

was destroyed, because of the public's faith to the chamber pot (a pot that people

used to do their business). But the plans were not destroyed, and the toilet was

rebuilt in Versailles.

Unfortunately, it was only available to the queen Marie Antoinette. This

was the only toilet in the world that actually flushed. Marie was very secretive

about her toilet. She only let her most trusted friends and servants see it. The

toilet was hidden away in the deepest, darkest part of the queen’s apartments.

In fact, the queen’s security measures to keep the toilet from the public were so

great, almost nobody knew about its existent.

For two years, mankind improved upon John Harrington’s design. Finally

in 1851, the first public toilet was revealed in the crystal palace in France, during

the Great Exhibition. But to use the toilet, you had to pay a fee of 1 penny. That’s

right. Whenever you had to go to the bathroom, you had to have a penny on you.

One of the biggest names associated to the toilet was Thomas Crapper.

Although he didn’t invent the toilet, he did start the first plumbing service. He

also promoted the idea of the toilet and came up with several other inventions

related to it. . Some of his inventions include the sink,and the bathroom

showroom.

But itthis industrydidn’t stop with just a simple toilet. The Japanese

decided to perfect the common toilet. After World War II, , flushing and urinal

toilets became common in Japan. But Toto Ltd., a company that started in 1917,

, created a washlet. The washlet was a toilet, but with a few modifications.

The washlets consisted of four settings: bottom washing, bidet washing, seat

warming, and deodorization. This was quite an improvement from the older

Japanese toilet, which was a ceramic hole in the ground known as a squat toilet.

There are even still some in the Japanese

From the primitive toilet that was a hole in the ground, to the washlet, a

mechanical flushing toilet, toilets are one of the most improved and important

inventions in history. There were 250,000 to 350,000 toilets in the United States

alone. The toilet has grown and evolved immensely over history, and hopefully

will still improve for years to come.