Plumbing History

Plumbing is one of the most important aspects of modern civilization. Without it, it would be considerably difficult, and perhaps an impossibility, to sustain a working network of cities and structures, as people would constantly be fending for themselves and battling health hazards in every direction.

Plumbing has a long history, dating back at least 5,000 years. The ancient society of Babylonia is considered by many to be one of the first modern civilizations to successfully operate day-to-day. They can be considered successful in large part to having a good, organized plumbing style and system. The plumbers of the day used clay and straw to create the first bathrooms which, back then, were literally "bath rooms," in that people went in these rooms primarily to bathe and clean themselves. Naturally, Babylon being a caste-driven system with clear divisions of wealth and distinction, only royalty had bath rooms in their palaces, which is obviously not the case today.

The first toilets were created roughly 2000 years ago by plumbers in China; these toilets had armrests, running water, working pipelines to direct the water and waste elsewhere. Like with the Babylonians, these were primarily used by royalty; one such toilet was discovered in the tomb of an ancient Chinese ruler, who ordered it placed in the tomb so he relieve himself comfortably even in death. Previously, self-contained modern toilets were thought to have been invented as little as a 100 years ago, by an English plumber named Thomas Crapper. The contributions of Crapper, from his inentions, to his name being an inspiration for much toilet-related terminology, to his every existence, is in constant debate even today.

Of no debate, however, is the importance of plumbing to all forms of civilization, both ancient and modern. It is almost inconceivable to imagine life without bathing, toiletries, and functioning pipelines, and we can thank plumbers and the art of plumbing that we have it in such abundance today.