Posted on 11/16/2001 1:23:05 PM PST by jerod
World's toilet connoisseurs gathering for summit
SINGAPORE - Singapore hopes to cash in on the humble toilet while promoting its reputation for being squeaky-clean when it hosts the World Toilet Summit next week.
About 500 washroom professionals from around the world are to convene for a three-day summit featuring state-of-the-art restroom designs.
China will be sending 20 delegates to join the summit, apparently to improve its notoriously unpleasant public toilets in time for the 2008 Olympics.
In addition to case studies on toilets from Finland to India to Australia, the seminar will include a forum on investments in toilets.
The event organizer has also planned a tour in which the delegates will visit Singapore's top three restrooms, at two downtown shopping malls and the zoo. The latter boasts rock walls and vegetation for an outdoorsy feel.
What's so new about that? We had one of those many years ago when I was a little tyke! Really cold in Winter!!!!!
The debate over who Thomas Crapper was---or even if there was a Thomas Crapper at all---continues. His contributions to the plumbing industry are even more suspect. But with this article we intend to replace myth with fact, for we have found a cadre of Thomas Crapper scholars who have made it their life's work to prove that Crapper is more than just a slang term brought home by the World War I doughboys.
For this article we interviewed Dr. Andy Gibbons, historian of the International Thomas Crapper Society, and Ken Grabowski, a researcher and author who is writing a book on Crapper’s life.
Myth: Thomas Crapper as a person never existed.
Fact: Though we do not know his actual date of birth, we can now say the man Thomas Crapper probably was born in September 1836, since he was baptized the 28th of that month. Crapper did have a successful career in the plumbing industry in England from 1861 to 1904.
The date of Crapper’s death has also been a source of confusion for many years. For example, "Chase's Annual Events," the authoritative book for listing special days and dates, has listed January 17 as Thomas Crapper Day and January 17, 1910 as the date of his death.
After all his research, Gibbons was certain that Chase's was 10 days off. The actual date of Thomas Crapper's death was January 27, 1910. The error probably resulted from an honest typo in "Flushed With Pride," by Wallace Reyburn, says Gibbons, "but I waged a 10-year battle with Chase's to get them to change the date." He finally won his battle this year after supplying them with a photo of Thomas Crapper's tombstone, notes from a living descendent and a copy of the man's official death certificate.
Myth: Thomas Crapper invented the toilet.
Fact: No one in the know about Thomas Crapper would ever make this statement. In his research, Grabowski has created a detailed history of Crapper's business life. The man holds nine patents: Four for improvements to drains, three for water closets, one for manhole covers and the last for pipe joints. Every patent application for plumbing related products filed by Crapper made it through the process, and actual patents were granted.
The most famous product attributed to Thomas Crapper wasn't invented by him at all. The "Silent Valveless Water Waste Preventer" (No. 814) was a siphonic discharge system that allowed a toilet to flush effectively when the cistern was only half full. British Patent 4990 for 1819 was issued to a Mr. Albert Giblin for this product.
There are a couple of theories on how Thomas Crapper came to be associated with this device. First, is that Giblin worked for Crapper as an employee and authorized his use of the product. The second, and more likely scenario, says Grabowski, is that Crapper bought the patent rights from Giblin and marketed the device himself.
Myth: Thomas Crapper never was a plumber.
Fact. Oh yes he was. He operated two of the three Crapper plumbing shops in his lifetime, but left the business three years before the final and most famous facility on Kings Road in London. When Crapper retired from active business in 1904, he sold his shop to two partners who, with help from others, operated the company under the Crapper name until its closing in 1966.
Several of London's current plumbing companies trace their trade roots to Thomas Crapper. One, Mr. Geoffrey Pidgeon of Original Bathrooms (Richmond upon Thames, Surrey, Great Britain), continues the trade of his great uncle and grandfather, both of whom apprenticed under Thomas Crapper.
Thomas Crapper did serve as the royal sanitary engineer for many members of England's royalty, but contrary to popular myth, he was never knighted, and thus isn't entitled to use the term "Sir" before his name.
Myth: The word "crap" is derived from Thomas Crapper's name.
Fact. The origin of crap is still being debated. Possible sources include the Dutch Krappe; Low German krape, meaning a vile and inedible fish; Middle English crappe, and Thomas Crapper. Where crap is derived from Crapper, it is by a process know as, pardon the pun, a back formation.
The World War I doughboys passing through England brought together Crapper's name and the toilet. They saw the words T. Crapper---Chelsea printed on the tanks and coined the slang "crapper" meaning toilet.
The legend of Thomas Crapper takes its flavor from the real man's life. While Crapper may not be the inventor of the product he is most often associated with, his contribution to England's plumbing history is significant. And the man's legend, well, it lives on despite all proof to contrary.
*WARNING*--not for the faint of stomach!
No problem.
As the exwife use to tell me:
I'm full of crap.
Sounds like a job for SuperClinton - the biggest piece of crap on the planet.
At Changi airport in Singapore, wifey got the thrill of seeing the "Asian" female urinals - simply a porcelain lined hole in the floor.....it may be a small world, but we still have our differences.
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BTW, the Japanese are culturally obsessed with toilets and underwear.
Only the Japanese could invent six-day underwear. Skivvies with three leg holes. You rotate them 120 degrees for 3 days, then turn them inside out and use them for another 3 in the same way.
Then there's the internet-connected toilet, which takes your pulse, blood pressure, urinalysis, etc, and emails this data to the hospital or your doctor.
I wondered: what if hackers gain access to your toilet?
--Boris
There's no way I'm going to start saying "I need to take a Gib."
Here in the Ukraine, I make sure my bowels are many hours from this necessity before going anywhere. Bathrooms in apartments are bad enough, but the public tualet is something to behold.
Of course, nothing could beat that black hole out behind the barn in Montana at thirty below zero for pure pleasure.
I saw one of those in France (Normandy, specifically). They're everywhere - I was just in Thailand and saw them there. (Yes, I know Thailand is Asia too.)
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