Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC840302); site zuring.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!pyramid!ut-sally!seismo!mcvax!zuring!dik From: dik@zuring.UUCP Newsgroups: net.followup,net.nlang Subject: Re: origin of "crap", really: "flushing toilet". Message-ID: <257@zuring.UUCP> Date: Mon, 9-Dec-85 21:34:48 EST Article-I.D.: zuring.257 Posted: Mon Dec 9 21:34:48 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 11-Dec-85 21:35:38 EST References: <521@klipper.UUCP> <76@nbs-amrf.UUCP> <226@argon.kcl-cs.UUCP> <6705@boring.UUCP> Reply-To: dik@zuring.UUCP (Dik T. Winter) Organization: CWI, Amsterdam Lines: 50 Xref: linus net.followup:4644 net.nlang:3578 Apparently-To: rnews@mcvax.LOCAL In article <6705@boring.UUCP> lambert@boring.UUCP (Lambert Meertens) writes: >In article <226@argon.kcl-cs.UUCP> phil@argon.UUCP (Phil Thompson) writes: >> In article <76@nbs-amrf.UUCP> hopp@nbs-amrf.UUCP (Ted Hopp) writes: >>>> One question: The person who flamed me called my article "crap". [...] >>>> What does the word "crap" mean? >>> The word "crap" literally means "trash". It has the additional connotation >>> of excrement or something equally unappealing. >> The origin of the word "crap" is Thomas Crapper. He invented the first >> flushing toilet. So "crap", if it means anything, means excrement. > >Who can shed light on this? Of particular interest is evidence of T.C.'s >inventorship of the flushing toilet (such as a patent issued in his name; >but from an independent source, not from the biography). > >By the way, did you know that "Flushing toilets" are called thus because >they were first produced and employed in Flushing? Quoted from 'Temples of Convenience' by Lucinda Lambton, St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10010 (ISBN 0-312-79085-6): The first lavatory with working parts and flushing water was invented by Sir John Harington, the godson of Queen Elizabeth I, in 1596. 'This devise of mine' wrote Harington in his 'Metamorphosis of Ajax', a learned and elaborate treatise on the water closet, 'requires not a sea full of water, but a cisterne, not a whole Tems (Thames) full, but half a tunne full, to keep all sweete and savourie.' He installed one in his house at Kelstone near Bath and one for his godmother the Queen, at Richmond Palace, but all the enticing words were to no further avail. He was 179 years before his time. The reeking stinking years were to go on until 1775 when the first successful patent for a water closet was taken out, although James I had granted one in 1617, but nothing more was heard of it. ... In 1775 Alexander Cummings, a watch and clockmaker, took out the first patent for a water closet - 'a water closet upon a new construction' - with the important feature of the S trap. It was improved two years later by Thomas Potter who flattered himself that the 'different noblemen and gentlemen in the three kingdoms, having used them with satisfaction, will be the means of promoting them'. (From the patents description.) In 1778 this invention was again altered and perfected by Joseph Bramah amd was to remain the most satisactory water closet for the next ninety-eight years. By 1797 Bramah was claiming to have made and sold six thousand of these closets, and the quality of his workmanship had become so high that the words 'a Bramah' came to be an expression for anything of first rate quality. The book features some beautiful photographs as well. Hope this sheds some light. -- dik t. winter, cwi, amsterdam, nederland UUCP: {seismo,decvax,philabs,okstate,garfield}!mcvax!dik