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The Tale ofthe Toilet:An Englishman’sPerspectiveBy Terry Woolliscroft BSc. (Hons), FIPHE

The toilet. It has been described as “one of the mostimportant inventions of the last 1,000 years.” Now, Ididn’t say that, but none other than the London

Times newspaper said that in its millennium edition. It com-pared the invention of the toilet with, amongst others, thedevelopment of the Gutenberg printing press in the 1400s,the atomic bomb, and the moon landing of 1969.

Here’s another statement: “One of the most suc-cessful designs ever. It doesn’t only improve lives, it savesthem.” Now, I didn’t say that, but none other than theManchester Independent newspaper said that in a recentmorning edition.

And one more bold statement: “It has done more toimprove the health of the people of the world than any

pills or potions.”

I said that!

And it is true that the toilet is an importantinvention — and we, as plumbing professionals,know that. But in the whole history of mankind it isrelatively recent and, as we shall see, we had to wait

for the great entrepreneurs of the Victorian times for itto be developed into what we know and love today.

Primitive SanitationEarly primitives were, of course, the

first sanitarians. They knew the rules – andlearned them the hard way. They knew thatthey must keep their sewage away from theircooking. They knew that they had to keeptheir kitchen upstream and their toilet down-

stream. If they reversed this layout there wouldbe terrible consequences. Death would follow. It isthis fundamental principle that we work with today.The toilet is part of the process of separating excre-ta from drinking water.

Roman LatrinesThe Romans were excellent sanitarians.

They regarded ablutions as extremely importantand built elaborate latrines in their townsand forts. Evidence remains of bathhouses and toilet blocks. Herecommunal latrines had beenbuilt. Users sat on marbleslabs. Each slab, with itshole, was supported abovegushing water to take awayexcreta. Fresh water channels infront of the slabs allowed usersto wash themselves using anatural sponge tied to

the end of a twig or stick.

Terry Woolliscroft, Lavatorial Toiletologist,gets a grip on the subject.

Of course the invention of toilet tissue was years ahead andwas not available to the Romans. Sponge sticks were anexcellent way of cleaning, but I do suspect that they were theorigin of the phrase “the wrong end of the stick”!

The Romans left Britain in A.D. 450 and theircivilization and legacy of sanitary science went withthem. Their heritage disappeared and we plungedinto the dark ages. A thousand years unwashed.

The First WC

We had to wait until 1592 before the next milestonein sanitary science was achieved. This is when Sir JohnHarington, the rather well-to-do godson of Queen Elizabeth1st got terribly bored with his lifestyle (he was a poet) and setabout designing what we now know to be the first ever fullyfunctioning and self-contained water closet. His invention wassomething we can now all recognize but not many people ofhis time did. It was a major breakthrough in sanitary scienceand toilet design. It was an efficient and reasonably hygienicmeans of disposal of human waste.

It had a cistern containing water. Ithad a seat and a bowl to receive the“goodies.” It had a means of flushing

away those goodies

using a sudden rush of the water. It was a genuine WC. A bril-liant invention. Years ahead of its time. And, like all great new

products, devices, and gizmos, itwas very expensive. It came in

at £1 10s 8d, around£1000 or $1850 intoday’s money.

It didn’t catch on!

No one couldafford it, and only two were

ever constructed. Haringtonmade one for himself for use at

his home in Kelston Manor in Bath,Somerset, England and the other for use by his godmoth-er, Queen Elizabeth 1st at Richmond Palace, on the RiverThames.

Harington was ahead of his time and we had to waittwo hundred years before the next glimpse of the sanitaryfuture came along. This was when Alexander Cumminginvented the first valve closet.

The Valve ClosetCumming was a watchmaker from London and he

applied his knowledge of mechanics to inventingthe sliding valve closet. Again, it was the brilliantinvention of its time. A genuine machine for thedisposal of human waste and a major break-

through in design. A suc-cess, but not for long.

The trouble was that

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Sir John Harington(1561-1612),inventor of the firstever fully function-ing and self-con-tained water closet.

“The Origin of theFeces,” with apologiesto Charles Darwin.

Replica of Harington’s water closet on display at GladstonePottery Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, England.

because the mechanism relied on a sliding valve, it soonfouled up. The slider rusted and stuck fast. Muck and filth —the very reason for its existence — contributed to its down-fall. So, not so brilliant after all.

It didn’t catch on!

But just three years later we saw another break-through. Joseph Bramah from Yorkshire, working as a cabinetmaker and locksmith, took Cumming’s sliding valve and con-verted it to a hinged valve. This didn’t stick — the mechanismwould not allow it to stick. Now this really was a success. Aneffective device. And it did catch on. (See diagram below.)

Thousands were sold. Every grand country house sim-ply had to have one and both engineers and potters were ableto make a living constructing the clever device. The Royal

Doulton Company displayed themproudly in their catalogs well

into the 20th century, longafter the development ofthe freestanding ceramicmarvel we know today.

Twyford Bathroomsof Stoke-on-Trent,

England, also manufac-tured them and, interest-

ingly, still manufacturesspare parts for these machines.

Special customers — for example,Her Majesty the Queen — from time to time require a replace-ment ceramic bowl and Twyford obliges. It is for this reasonthat Twyford Bathrooms is unique in that it holds the RoyalWarrant for the supply of bathrooms to the Royal Household.

The hinged valve closet was expensive and complicat-ed and, for the likes of you and me, it was well out of our reach.So most people still relied on the humble privy: a plank and abucket in a draughty hovel at the bottom of the garden. We stillneeded a design breakthrough that was cheap and cheerful,clean and decent, and it came at the height of the Victorian erawhen great entrepreneurs set about changing the way we lived.

The Arrival ofthe MonumentThis was the time of the “Great

Stink” when the Thames was an open sewerand people like Edward Johns and Thomas

Twyford started the race to develop the “modern”toilet. What was needed was a freestanding

ceramic affair which required no mechanism andwas relatively cheap. Many designs were produced.

Here is one, the Twyford UNITAS, pictured at the top ofthe next page.

This was the first free-standing,all-ceramic, pedestal wash-out closet. Lavishlydecorated inside with printed blue dahlias andoutside with raised oak leaves and acorns to

encourage the masses to love it and buy it. Andthey did. It caught on and sold in huge quantities

worldwide. The UNITAS revolutionized the bathroomindustry and one of its kind is proudly displayed at the

Twyford factory. It is described as Twyford’s Monument. “TheMonument to Excrement.”

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Thomas WilliamTwyford (1849-1921), father of theBritish bathroom.

This diagramdepicts Cumming’ssliding valve closetof 1775 with its“s trap.”

Brahma’s hingedvalve closet of 1778.

I love this true storyabout the UNITAS. It sold inthousands all over the worldand did particularly well inRussia. So well, in fact, thatthe name UNITAS becameabsorbed into the Russian lan-guage to mean “toilet.” So here isa hint for travelers: The next timeyou’re in Moscow or St. Petersburgor Omsk and you need to “go,” justask for the UNITAS and you’ll bedirected to the nearest bathroom!

Some FailuresAlong the Way

By 1900 the modern bathroom had beendesigned. Virtually all the shapes, sizes, anddesigns to which we are nowaccustomed hadbeen laid down.Form had followedfunction! The bath-room was establishedand the industry was onits way.

In the 1930sthere was a serious attemptby Royal Doulton Bathroomsto introduce another piece ofceramic sanitaryware to thebathroom. Manufacturers likeDoulton were keen to expandtheir market with newbathroom inventions. Andwith a great leap of imag-ination, a great leap intothe future, they developed theladies urinal!

This was an ugly and cumbersome affair and not atall elegant. It did not look well in either domestic or commer-cial applications. Even the deluxe model with its “thigh sup-ports” was insufficient to encourage its use. It didn’t catchon! It was rejected by the masses. Introduced 1936.Withdrawn 1942.

Talking about ladies urinals, therewas another attempt to introduce one ofthese lavatorial inventions: The Lady P.Introduced in 2001. Withdrawn in 2005. Itdidn’t catch on!

About the same time as the Lady P, themen’s waterless urinal was also introduced. But if

you’ve ever used one, you won’t want to try another.Ever. At all. No!

EfficiencyNow let us jump forward to the present day, to

the early 21st century, and we can see some amazingdevelopments going on in sanitaryware.

Efficiency is the buzz-word at the moment. Andthree efficiencies spring to mind:• manufacturing efficiency,• installation efficiency, and• water efficiency.

In manufacturing efficiency, the future lies in the useof robots. Amazing and “clever” machines that can cuddleand cajole, manipulate and maneuver soft and delicate clayduring the production process. But these machines are defi-nitely masculine in form. They are in no way feminine. Theycan only do one thing at a time!

In product installation efficiency, the future of sani-taryware lies in efficient and reliable, good quality installation.A few years ago Twyford Bathrooms pioneered the “TotalInstall” system. Toilet suites using Total Install are suppliedwith factory-fitted and tested mechanisms. Washbasins comewith wall brackets inspired by the boiler industry, and acrylicbaths have fast-fit flip-up legsets. Bathrooms with Total Installare quick to fit, reliable, and reduce the amount of call-backs.

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Twyford’s UNITAS, a break-through in sanitary engineering.1883.

The Royal Doulton deluxeladies’ urinal of 1936, with thigh supports.

The Sphinx “Lady P,” 2001. It also didn’tcatch on.

In water usage efficiency, bathroom products willrequire less of that precious commodity, water. This is theimportant one! Throughout history, the toilet has been seenas the “naughty” appliance in the household. It’s beenregarded as the water waster. But not any more. In the lasttwenty years, the volume of water being used to flush a mod-ern WC has been halved from 13 liters (3.43 US gallons) to6 liters (1.585 US gallons) and the pressure is now on toreduce it even further. Toilets are now commonly availablewith a 4 liter (1.06 US gallons) flush — but will our drainagesystem cope?

VIPAnd finally, let us take a peek into the

distant (or perhaps not so distant) future.Let’s look at the concept WC from TwyfordBathrooms. The VIP — The VersatileInteractive Pan.

Its versatility comes from the factthat the china toilet bowl which, beingmounted on a mechanism, can be made torise or fall to a position which suits thepreference of the user. No longer is theuser committed to using a toilet at aheight that was laid down 120 yearsago. With the VIP, the user chooses!

The bowlmay be at lowlevel for a child.Or with its seatmoved automati-cally away, it canbe used in squat-ting mode.

It may be at “normal” height for“normal” people and even then may beadjusted millimeter by millimeter to suit a“vertically challenged” person.

Then at the push of a button, it maybe used at the Lady P height. Or for gentle-men, at gentleman’s urinal height. And atthis height, it may double up as a conve-nient sick bowl!

So the push but-ton control allows theuser to adjust the heightof the bowl. That’s theversatility of this newmachine! But the deluxeversion of the VIP is evenbetter with voice activation.Another few thousand dollars buysyou a device that can recognizeyour voice and will adjust to yourpreferred height without theneed to touch a grubby buttonon the wall.

The interactivityis, well, something else. Thisinteractive marvel is connected to the Internet! Deep in theheart of the VIP is a medical sensor. Once you have madeyour liquid deposit, the machine will have a good look at itand instantly give you a printed analysis of your condition. Ifyou were, say, diabetic, the machine would give you a read-ing of your blood sugar level. But more importantly, it woulduse the connection to the Internet to send the reading to yourlocal clinic for its records. In this way the VIP is a true health-care toilet. You have no need to visit your clinic. And the doc-tor or nurse doesn’t need to visit you. Think of the cost sav-ings! Health insurance rates will positively plummet!

Alternatively, let’s imagine your VIP had analyzed yourstools. (Or in the UK, since we are part of the European com-munity, we like to call it your “EuroPoo”!) The VIP may decidethat your metabolism is not quite in the state that it shouldbe. It may decide that your bowels are not in tip-top condi-tion. Perhaps not enough roughage. If this was the case itwould immediately send an e-mail order to your local grocerystore, which would quickly send a van to you loaded to thebrim with red beans, kidney beans, baked beans, half bakedbeans, oats, muesli, bran flakes, corn flakes, almond flakes,fruit, coconuts, lentils, linseed, and noodles. Perhaps.

The Twyford VIP is still in development.

Will it ever catch on? Will it ever be manufactured?Who knows?

But that’s the Tale of the Toilet.

Clever robots that cuddle and cajole fragile clay into sani-taryware wonders.

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About the Author

Terry Woolliscroft is the customer training manager atTwyford Bathrooms.

He is a member of Twyford's marketing team and hisrole involves him in speaking to all sorts of customers, athome and abroad, about all aspects of the vast TwyfordBathrooms portfolio. He is based in the purpose-built TwyfordTraining Centre at the heart of the factory in Stoke-on-Trent,England. It is here that Terry runs seminars for builders, mer-chants, and bathroom retail customers, bathroom designers,salesmen, and merchant counter staff.

Terry has a university degree in ceramic technologyand is a fellow of the Institute of Plumbing and HeatingEngineering.

In September 2006, during a lecture tour of theUSA, he was voted the “The W.E. Mitchell Speaker of theYear” by members of ASSE on Capitol Hill.

(He’s sometimes called a “lavatorial historian” or,even more ridiculously, a “lavatorial toiletologist.”)

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