Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet

English courtier John Harington designed a flushing toilet around 1596. Thomas Crapper was a plumber who sold and improved fixtures and held patents, but he did not invent the flush toilet.

Context

Thomas Crapper was a real plumber and sanitary engineer who ran a successful business in London in the late nineteenth century, and his firm held several patents for plumbing equipment such as improved cisterns and drain fittings. He was not the inventor of the flush toilet, which has a longer history with several contributors.

An early design is credited to Sir John Harington, a courtier of Elizabeth I, who described a water closet in the 1590s. In 1775 the Scottish watchmaker Alexander Cumming patented an S-shaped trap that kept sewer gases out, and in 1778 Joseph Bramah introduced improvements, including a hinged valve, that made the device more reliable. These changes laid the groundwork for later models.

Crapper's name was displayed on the cisterns and fittings his company sold, and some stories say it also gave rise to the slang word 'crap'. That claim is not supported, because the word has older roots, though American soldiers in the First World War may have helped popularize the connection after seeing his name in Britain. The myth is a good example of how an amusing name can attract credit that belongs elsewhere.