Toilets of the World

Welcome to the Toilets of the World

Are you wondering why people hoard toilet paper? Wondering how to use a bidet, or even what a bidet is? Curious about what the toilets are like in other countries? Toilets from ancient history? Do you wonder who invented the flush toilet? (It wasn't Thomas Crapper!) You've come to the right place!

Toilets around the world:
Belgium Bulgaria China France Greek Islands Japan Morocco Trinidad Russia and many others
Toilets from throughout history:
The Stone Age Ancient Greece Ancient Rome Bible era King Arthur's England Invention of the flush toilet To the toilets of the future

109 days until Thomas Crapper's birthday

168 days until World Toilet Day

Answers for your important questions: Why do people hoard toilet paper? Did Thomas Crapper invent the flush toilet? Should I squat or sit? Should I wipe or wash? Where do I put used paper, in the bowl or in the bin? When did public toilets become segregated by sex? What is a bidet? What is a toilet snorkel? Should I incinerate my sewage in the basement?

Toilets of world leaders, artists, and authors: The Ottoman Sultan Woodrow Wilson Leon Trotsky Winston Churchill Adolf Hitler Dwight Eisenhower Robert Kennedy William Shakespeare Edgar Allan Poe Vincent Van Gogh Jim Morrison Lady Gaga

Who Invented the Flush Toilet?

Toilets are not new, they have been around since the Stone Age, and flushing toilets are old enough that history doesn't record their invention. But then things fell apart after the Roman Empire fell apart. Flushing toilets on a modern design were finally re-invented in England a little before 1600, wrapped up in some royal court intrigue.

Portrait of Sir John Harington (1561-1612) by Hieronimo Custodis about 1590-1593.

Sir John Harington was born in 1561 in Kelston, Somerset, in southeastern England. His mother was a gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber of Queen Elizabeth I.

The Privy Chamber was the most influential operating department within the English royal household. Control of the Privy Chamber meant control of the ruler. What had simply been the Chamber of the King had been divided under King Henry VIII (ruled 1509-1547) into the Privy Chamber, the Presence Chamber, and the Great Hall, working out from the innermost private space. The Privy Chamber included the ruler's bedroom, library, study and toilet.

As King Henry VIII grew older and fatter, the position of Groom of the Stool became ever more influential. Meanwhile, the work involved remained rather unpleasant. The Groom of the Stool, more formally titled the Groom of the King's Close Stool, was in charge of the royal excretion and was tasked with removing the excrement and cleaning the King's anal area after defecation.

Chamber underneath the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, where the ethylene seeped up into the chamber of the Pythia or Oracle.

The religious complex at Delphi included a variety of ancient plumbing. Sacred baths and cleansing basins were used by pilgrims preparing for their visit.

A crevasse beneath the Sanctum Sanctorum in the Temple of Apollo, the main temple at Delphi, emitted a seep of ethylene gas. This gas seep is thought to have caused the strange mental states and resulting babbling by the Oracle. Ethylene is known to cause a mixed euphoria and frenzy with little to no recollection of one's action or altered speech during the period of intoxication.

The narrow passage seen above leads under the temple toward the ethylene seep. See the dedicated page for more on Delphi's role in Greek cosmology as the center of the universe and its supporting religious plumbing.

Check back tomorrow for another featured toilet!

Who is the Toilet Guru?