The invention of the toilet is not attributed to a single individual but rather evolved over thousands of years through many contributions.
- The earliest known toilets date back about 5,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia, with simple pit-style toilets and drainage systems
- The Minoan civilization on Crete had some of the first flush toilets around 1700 BC, using water to carry away waste
- The Romans developed public latrines with centralized plumbing by 315 AD
- In 1596, Sir John Harington, a courtier to Queen Elizabeth I, devised the first modern flush toilet with a raised cistern and downpipe, although it lacked an S-bend and was not widely adopted
- The first patent for a flushing toilet was granted to Scottish inventor Alexander Cummings in 1775; he introduced the S-bend pipe to prevent sewer odors from entering buildings
- Other important inventors include Samuel Prosser (patented the "plunger closet" in 1777) and Joseph Bramah (patented a practical water closet in 1778)
- Thomas Crapper, often mistakenly credited as the inventor, did not invent the toilet but popularized it in the late 19th century and improved related mechanisms like the floating ballcock and U-bend
In summary, the toilet as we know it today is the result of gradual innovations from ancient civilizations through the 19th century, with key milestones by Sir John Harington (1596) and Alexander Cummings (1775) among others
