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Thomas Crapper (baptised 28 September 1836; died 27 January 1910) was an English plumber and businessman. He founded Thomas Crapper & Co in London, a plumbing equipment company. His notability with regard to toilets has often been overstated, mostly due to the publication in 1969 of a fictional biography by New Zealand satirist Wallace Reyburn. Crapper held nine patents, three of them for water closet improvements such as the floating
ballcock A ballcock (also balltap or float valve) is a mechanism or machine for filling water tanks, such as those found in flush toilets, while avoiding overflow and (in the event of low water pressure) backflow. The modern ballcock was invented by Jos ...
. He improved the S-bend plumbing trap in 1880 by inventing the U-bend. The firm's lavatorial equipment was manufactured at premises in nearby Marlborough Road (now Draycott Avenue). The company owned the world's first bath, toilet and sink showroom in
King's Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...
. Crapper was noted for the quality of his products and received several royal warrants.
Manhole cover A manhole cover or maintenance hole cover is a removable plate forming the lid over the opening of a manhole, an opening large enough for a person to pass through that is used as an access point for an underground vault or pipe. It is designed t ...
s with Crapper's company's name on them in
Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...
have become one of London's minor
tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural ...
s.


Life

Thomas Crapper was born in Thorne, West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1836; the exact date is unknown, but he was baptised on 28 September 1836. His father, Charles, was a sailor. In 1853, he was apprenticed to his brother George, a master plumber in
Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
, and thereafter spent three years as a journeyman plumber. In 1861, Crapper set himself up as a sanitary engineer, with his own brass foundry and workshops in nearby Marlborough Road. In the 1880s, Prince Albert (later
Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...
) purchased his country seat of
Sandringham House Sandringham House is a country house in the parish of Sandringham, Norfolk, England. It is one of the royal residences of Charles III, whose grandfather, George VI, and great-grandfather, George V, both died there. The house stands in a estat ...
in Norfolk and asked Thomas Crapper & Co. to supply the plumbing, including thirty lavatories with cedarwood seats and enclosures, thus giving Crapper his first Royal Warrant. The firm received further warrants from Edward as king and from
George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...
, both as
Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
and as king. In 1904, Crapper retired, passing the firm to his nephew George and his business partner Robert Marr Wharam. Crapper lived at 12 Thornsett Road,
Anerley Anerley () is an area of south east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is located south south-east of Charing Cross, to the south of Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, west of Penge, north of Elmers End and South Norwood. ...
, for the last six years of his life and died on 27 January 1910. He was buried in the nearby Elmers End Cemetery.


Posthumous fate of the Crapper company

In 1966, the Crapper company was sold, by then owner Robert G. Wharam (son of Robert Marr Wharam) on his retirement, to its rivals John Bolding & Sons. Bolding went into liquidation in 1969. The company fell out of use until it was acquired by Simon Kirby, a historian and collector of antique bathroom fittings, who relaunched the company in Stratford-upon-Avon, producing authentic reproductions of Crapper's original Victorian bathroom fittings.


Achievements

As the first man to set up public showrooms for displaying sanitary ware, he became known as an advocate of sanitary plumbing, popularising the notion of installation inside people's homes. He also helped refine and develop improvements to existing plumbing and sanitary fittings. As a part of his business he maintained a foundry and metal shop, which enabled him to try out new designs and develop more efficient plumbing solutions. Crapper improved the S-bend trap in 1880. The new U-bend plumbing trap was a significant improvement on the "S" as it could not jam, and unlike the S-bend, it did not have a tendency to dry out and did not need an overflow. The BBC nominated the S-bend as one of the ''50 Things That (have) Made the Modern Economy''.50 Things That Made the Modern Economy: S-Bend
BBC
Crapper held nine patents, three of them for water closet improvements such as the floating
ballcock A ballcock (also balltap or float valve) is a mechanism or machine for filling water tanks, such as those found in flush toilets, while avoiding overflow and (in the event of low water pressure) backflow. The modern ballcock was invented by Jos ...
, but none for the flush toilet itself. Crapper's advertisements implied the siphonic flush was his invention. One such advertisement read "Crapper's Valveless Water Waste Preventer (Patent #4,990) One movable part only", even though patent 4990 (for a minor improvement to the water waste preventer) was not his, but that of Albert Giblin in 1898. However, Crapper's nephew, George, did improve the siphon mechanism by which the water flow starts. A patent for this development was awarded in 1897.


Origin of the word "crap"

It has often been claimed in popular culture that the profane slang term for human
bodily waste Metabolic wastes or excrements are substances left over from metabolic processes (such as cellular respiration) which cannot be used by the organism (they are surplus or toxic), and must therefore be excreted. This includes nitrogen compounds, wa ...
''
crap Crap or craps may refer to: * Crap, a slang term for feces * Craps, a dice game * ''Craps'' (album), by Big Dipper, 1988 * ''Commandos de recherche et d'action en profondeur'', the former name of France's Commando Parachute Group * "Create, ...
'' originated with Thomas Crapper because of his association with lavatories. A common version of this story is that American servicemen stationed in England during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
saw his name on cisterns and used it as army slang, i.e., "I'm going to the crapper". The word ''crap'' is actually of
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...
origin and predates its application to bodily waste. Its most likely etymological origin is a combination of two older words: the
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
''krappen'' (to pluck off, cut off, or separate) and the
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intellig ...
''crappe'' (siftings, waste or rejected matter, from the
medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functione ...
''crappa''). In English, it was used to refer to chaff and also to weeds or other rubbish. Its first recorded application to bodily waste, according to the ''
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
'', appeared in 1846, 10 years after Crapper was born, under a reference to a ''crapping ken,'' or a privy, where ''ken'' means a house.


References


Further reading

* * (fiction)


External links


Thomas Crapper
at Snopes.com
Thomas Crapper & Co. Ltd.
– the plumbing company founded by Thomas Crapper {{DEFAULTSORT:Crapper, Thomas 1836 births 1910 deaths British chief executives British plumbers British Royal Warrant holders People from Thorne, South Yorkshire Toilets 19th-century British businesspeople King's Road, Chelsea, London