@196 ->Email starletters@rim.co.uk Password: jonathan Subject: Thomas Crapper - "Loo must be joking" Thomas Crapper no more invented the mechanical flush toilet than Bill Gates invented the computer operating system. They both made lots of money from *selling* their products. Water flushing closets were descibed by Sir John Harington, godson of Queen Elizabeth I, in 1597. He claimed to have got the idea from an italian. Cummins in 1775 and Joseph Bramah in 1778 patented water flushed closets. However, these were not syphonic flushing systems. With the increasing sanitary provision in the mid-19th century, more and more water closets were being used. The usual method of flushing them was to keep a bucket handy. After using the closet, you filled the bucket from a tap, and emptied the bucket into the toilet to flush it. However, many people, rather than using the bucket method, kept the tap running. This caused great concern to the water authorities. who worried about the mid-19th century Thomas Crapper was born in Thorne, near Doncaster, in 1836 - one year before Victoria come to the throne. It was, and still is, common practice for installers to have their own name on the products they installed. Thomas Crapper had his own factory at the Marlborough Works in Chelsea where produced his own goods, as well as buying in standard parts from other manufacturers. 1861 During the 1880s various syphonic flushing systems were patented, but none by Thomas Crapper. Crapper crapper did patent - sealed drain covers Thomos Crapper & Co, established in 1861, are still trading in Stratford-on-Avon (The Stable Yard, Alscot Park, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire CV37 8BL Tel: 01789 450522 http://www.thomascrapper.co.uk)