Hello, friends. This is the way I heard it, episode number 270, and this is a special one. Oh, yes.

Holy crap. It's Thomas Crapper's birthday. September 28, 1836. That was the day. On this day, 1886 years ago,

one of the greatest plumbers of all time was born.

Contrary to popular belief, Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet. A lot of people think he did.

He didn't. That honor belongs to Sir John Harrington, who actually was a distant ancestor of the Game of Thrones star Kit Harrington.

Another story, but he built the original flush toilet in 1596 for his godmother,

who happened to be Queen Elizabeth I. She didn't like it, said it was too loud.

Krapper got the credit for that invention, though, partly because of his name, but mostly because of a book that was published in 1969 called Flushed with Pride, the story of Thomas

Crapper, which has been roundly dismissed as a work of complete and total fabrication. In other

words, the way a lot of people heard it is completely

wrong. What Thomas Crapper did was a lot more extensive than what John Harrington did.

Crapper held all sorts of plumbing patents, including one for the ballcock, which is fun to say.

The ballcock prevents toilets from overflowing.

Krapper also designed new and improved versions of the early flush toilets, along with manhole

covers and pipe joints and all sorts of drain improvements still used in every major city today.

Krapper also plumbed for royalty.

Crapper's plumbing company was commissioned to do plumbing projects for

Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Sandringham Estate, and so forth.

Unfortunately, the rumors that he was knighted by the

Queen are also rumors. Totally untrue. His greatest claim to fame, though, was opening the very first

bathroom showroom in 1870. This was a very, very, very big deal. At a time when it was considered improper to publicly acknowledge bodily functions,

Thomas Crapper's Marlborough Works Showroom boldly placed functioning toilets on public display.

...