Thomas Crapper

Thomas Crapper

Thomas Crapper was born in Waterside, Yorkshire, in September 1836. His father Charles was a steamboat captain. When crapper was 14 he was the apprenticed of a master plumber in Chelsea. After his apprenticeship he was a journeyman plumber for three years until he founded his own company in 1861.

Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet. The credit of inventing the flush toilet is usually given to Sir John Harington, he invented his toilet in 1596. Alexander Cummings' modernized the toilet and flush in 1775. Although Crapper didn't invent the flush toilet he was the first one to make the toilet popular for people to use in everyday life. He was a shrewd businessman, salesman, and self-publicist. Back when bathroom fixtures were barely ever spoken of, Crapper heavily promoted sanitary plumbing and pioneered the concept of the bathroom fittings.

In the 1880s, Prince Edward bought a house in Norfolk and asked Thomas Crapper & Co. to supply the plumbing, the house had thirty bathrooms which he put cedarwood toilet seats, that gave him a Royal Warrant. He got more warrants from Prince Edward as a king and from George V both as Prince of Wales and as King. Crapper never received a knighthood for the work he did for the kings.

Thomas crapper has nine patents, four for improvements to drains, three for water closets, one for manhole covers and the last for pipe joints. The most famous invention was invented by one of his employees named Albert Giblin. He invented the "silent Valveless Water Waste Preventer" it was a symphonic discharge system that allowed a toilet to flush effectively when the cistern was only half full. The Patent was issued to Giblin for this product.

Thomas Crapper operated two of his three Crapper plumbing shops in his lifetime. When he retired he 1904, sold his business to his nephew George and his business partner Robert Marr Wharam. Thomas died six years after he retired at his home on January 27, 1910

During world war 1 when the United States doughboys or soldiers were passing through England saw the words T. Crapper- Chelsea printed on the tanks of the toilets and it coined the slang term "crapper or crap" meaning toilet. This is just one of the reason crap