How Did People Take Showers 200 Years Ago?

The history of the bathroom starts with the appearance of a bathing bowl several thousand years ago. In this regard, neither its function nor form has undergone radical changes. A standard bathtub in a typical apartment differs little from a tub found during excavations of ancient cities.

Marble bathtub in the 3rd century BC

In medieval Europe, bathing was considered a sin, which led to the spread of various diseases. However, by the 19th century, Europeans had reconsidered and returned to bathing procedures. At that time, sitting baths or basins were used instead of the bathtub we are familiar with today.

Those who could afford it could buy baths made of expensive materials — enamel and zinc. Those who were even wealthier bought basins made of tin. From 1840, hot water was piped into wealthy homes, and by the 1870s, bathing procedures became available to the middle class.

In poor homes, gas heaters were installed to heat water, but they were expensive to maintain, noisy, and dangerous, as they sometimes exploded.

In wealthy homes, innovations were installed — bathtubs with gas heaters. However, due to their cost and complexity of operation, they were used reluctantly.

At the end of the 19th century, France began producing high-quality ceramic basins for sinks and toilets.

The first was Émile Jacob, who produced plumbing taps and pipes. He joined forces with Maurice Delafon, a manufacturer of items made from enameled white sandstone. Together, they created a small production facility for manufacturing sanitary ceramics.

The bet on this new type of product turned out to be correct. In 1889, the products of these two entrepreneurs received a gold medal at an exhibition in Paris.

Shower

Initially, showers were provided by waterfalls. Then for many centuries people washed themselves with water from a basin.

The first images of the shower in its modern form were found on Athenian vases dated to the 4th century BC. For example, one of them shows two showers where four young women are bathing. The water flowing through the pipe poured down on them via showerheads in the form of lion and boar heads.

A complete set of showers (2nd century BC) was found during excavations in Turkey. These systems used seven levels of shower installations. Water flowed down from a central system onto people, and then it went to other bathing rooms, where it entered the drainage system.

The forerunner of modern shower cabins appeared in 1810. It was 3.5 meters tall and consisted of reservoir basins placed at the top and bottom.

The disadvantage of such a shower was repeated water usage: the water flowed from the upper reservoir to the lower one, then rose through pipes and again poured over the person washing.

In the same year 1810, a shower curtain was invented, which also served as a towel: the fabric was soaked with aromatic oils to give the person a pleasant scent after the shower.

Toilet

Toilets similar to those installed in modern restrooms only appeared in the second half of the 19th century. Before that, the options were limited to two: a place for excretion in the yard or a chamber pot.

The first toilet was a hybrid of a chair and a night pot — for example, the so-called "earth toilet," invented by Henry Moyle in 1860.

Inside the container behind the "seat" was dry soil. It was just a matter of pulling the lever and the soil would fall into the pot, which was then emptied — this made it easier and cleaner. This model somewhat resembled a cat litter box.

The ancestors of modern toilets were inconvenient and caused many problems.

In the first toilets, waste was emptied into a reservoir where water was then poured in to flush it away through the sewer pipe. Water was not always sufficient for effective flushing. Therefore, early toilets were installed in back rooms.

The problem of odors was solved after the invention of a toilet with a siphon (S-bend). Changes also affected the drain: whereas earlier it depended only on water pressure, in the 1870s non-valve siphons were used that created a vacuum and sucked in the contaminated water.

Inventions of Krappe: a tank with an automatic lever float valve that shuts off the water supply and a toilet with a 'water lock' in the shape of a U-bend drain pipe.

Faucet

The "revolutionary" water tap — the first ball mixer — was invented in 1940 by Alex Manukyan.

The uniqueness of the mixer lay in the fact that instead of two taps — for hot and cold water — only one was used, which simultaneously controlled both pressure and temperature. Manufacturers of plumbing fixtures were not interested in the invention, so Manukyan decided to produce and sell such mixers himself.