Plumbing History Timeline
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- From 3,000 B.C, the ancient Minoan civilization on Crete developed an advanced plumbing system, which featured underground clay pipes and the first flushing toilets.
- In 312 B.C., Appius Claudius created the aqueduct, a network of man-made streams conducting water downhill to Ancient Rome.
- In 1596, Queen Elizabeth I installed the first flushing toilet in England, which her godson Sir John Harington invented.
- In 1775, Alexander Cumming invented the S trap, receiving the first patent for a flushing toilet.
- In 1728, New York health officials installed the first underground sewer to respond to complaints about the stench caused by above-ground sewage.
- In 1829, Boston’s Tremont Hotel became the first hotel to have indoor plumbing, including eight water closets.
- In 1848, England passed The National Public Health Act, which became the world’s model plumbing code for clean, safe water.
- In 1890, Massachusetts built the first drinking water treatment system.
- In 1857, Joseph C. Gayetty of New York produced the first packaged toilet paper called Gayetty’s Medicated Paper.