The ingenious watchmaker who changed our daily habits - and not how you might expect
The ingenious watchmaker who changed our daily habits - and not how you might expect
His life-saving sanitation breakthrough helps to save lives to this day
It was a year in which the world would change forever. War would see America begin its long ascent to global superpower. And an Edinburgh watchmaker and inventor would take out the world’s first patent that would bring improved sanitation and health – a flushing toilet with a simple but remarkable innovation.
In the springtime of 1775, a shot fired in Concord, Massachusetts, marked the start of the American War of Independence with Great Britain, which eventually would lead to the formation of the United States.
And later that year, with considerably less drama, Alexander Cumming quietly took out the first patent on a flushing toilet, which included two vital new innovations – the water filled S-bend we still use today, and the swirling water flush action. Patent 1105 was to prove a game-changer in the world of sanitation.
The original, basic flushing water closet had been invented by Sir John Harington, godson of Queen Elizabeth I, in 1596. It did not catch on – he made two, one for himself and one “porcelain throne” for his godmother – because, to put it as daintily as possible, even the Elizabethans found them smelly. Very smelly. And given that they were famously unhygienic – most didn’t wash that much although the Queen bathed once a month “whether she needed it or not” – that’s quite an olfactory feat.
Yes, this Saturday we are focusing on the humble toilet, and the important part Edinburgh played in its development. I’ve had to promise our sensible editor Euan McGrory that I’ll try to control my inner child. He reminded me that the over-worked pun that Cumming was “flushed with success” isn’t smart and doesn’t bowl anyone over. And I definitely won’t clumsily lever in the Two Ronnies “news bulletin” about an ongoing police investigation into the theft of toilets from their station. After all, they’ve nothing to go on. No, I’ll avoid all that nonsense (ahem) now I’ve got that out of my system.
Cumming’s water-filled S-bend solved Harington’s problem, sealing off the toilet from the sewer and preventing noxious gases and smells from permeating. The flushing toilet, as we can still recognise it today, had arrived and allied with other plumbing and sewage improvements, has massively reduced disease and plague in the UK and around the world.
The man who had built his considerable reputation in his home city and later in London for his mastery of intricate horological mechanics would go on to become best known for a bendy, water-filled bit of pipe.
It wasn’t perfect. For one thing, according to the National Archives, homes were not equipped with indoor plumbing or running water. The waste that Cumming’s toilet flushed away so well had no sewer to flow into. His patent described how the innovation was all about “the shape of the pan or bason (sic), the manner of admitting the water into it, and on having the stink trap so constructed that its contents shall or may be totally emptied every time the closet is used.”
While indoor toilets were increasingly popular among the middle classes within half a century of his patent, the humble earth closet remained the more popular, cheaper option for many. Indeed, as recently as 1970 as many as one in four Scots still did not have an indoor toilet.
Our history with development of the “cludgie” is a long-standing one. There is evidence that Scotland’s renowned Skara Brae neolithic remains in Orkney contain toilet drains built into some stone huts, dating back 3000 years. Quite possibly the oldest “toilets” on earth.
Cumming was born in Scotland’s Capital in 1733, as the golden age of Edinburgh’s enlightenment was beginning to get underway and gained a job as an apprentice clockmaker. He was to go on to work for notable Scots, including the powerful Duke of Argyll.
By the 1760s he was in London, plying his trade successfully from his premises in Bond Street, including creating a Barometrical Clock for King George III, who paid him a retainer to maintain it. He also invented the microtome, a machine for making extremely thin slices as used in microscope slide making.
It would be overstating the invention of the S-bend to call it a labour of love. More born of necessity. Because while little is known of his life, Cumming would have grown up in and around Edinburgh’s overcrowded Old Town. He was still in the city in 1749, when the city council passed its Nastiness Act, which dictated the times during the night when citizens were permitted to “empty or lay down filth, ashes, foul water or any other nastiness” on the streets, closes and lanes of the city. Those who tipped out their chamber pots during the day, risking the most unpleasant of soakings for the unwary or unfortunate unable to react to the cry of gardyloo (from the French for “look out for the water”), could be fined 5 shillings – around £180 in today’s money.
Interestingly, the Act of Nastiness has never been removed from the statute books, but let’s not go there. Some freedoms are most definitely worth giving up…
In London, the busy, crowded city had similar sanitary issues, with the stench from the Thames a constant source of unpleasantness and illness.
For those inclined to dismiss the part Cumming’s ingenuity has played on our world, consider this. The World Toilet Organisation – founded 20 years ago – is happy to put things into context.
· Those of us fortunate to have access to a bathroom spend an average of 813 days there during our lives. That’s more than two years.
· Around a billion people around our world still defecate in the open.
· More than 800 children under the age of five die every day from diarrhea diseases caused by poor sanitation.
19 November was officially recognised as UN World Toilet Day on July 24, 2013, the WTO says, as “the result of our relentless commitment to raising awareness on the sanitation crisis and a resolution sponsored by the Singapore government on our behalf…
“While sanitation has become more of a priority for world leaders in the 20 years since WTO was founded, the attention and resources put into resolving sanitation issues today is far from enough. It’s time for toilets to be treated as an urgent global priority. In the words of our founder Jack Sim, “What we don’t discuss, we can’t improve.” We need to continue addressing the taboo nature of toilets and shine a spotlight on sanitation.”
In Scotland we are fortunate to have access to good quality sanitation, but we may have to tackle some changes in the next couple of decades. Global warming is an issue that will find its way even into the smallest room in the house.
Research carried out for NatureScot in the past few years warns that climate change will see incidents of drought massively increase in Scotland. Hard as it may be to believe that our nation, with almost 30 inches of rain a year, could suffer drought. But it is already happening, and it is only going to become more common.
Comparing with the period 1981 – 2001, the decades 2021-2040 will see extreme drought events – when we have less water stored than we need - increase from one every 20 years, to one every three years.
Scots use a lot of water, around 180 litres per person per day compared to just 144 litres in England and Wales and 106 litres in Denmark. Around 30% of the water we use is, literally, flushed away as we pull that little lever six times a day. Already the Scottish Government runs campaigns urging us to better manage our precious water resource, and further toilet innovations are constantly being looked at. How, and how often, we flush in future remains an issue we need to tackle.