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122:(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
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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 4,990 (for a minor improvement to the water waste preventer) was not his, but that of Albert Giblin
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As the first man to set up public showrooms for displaying sanitary ware, Crapper 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
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In 1966 the
Crapper company was sold by then-owner Robert G. Wharam (son of Robert Marr Wharam) upon his retirement to its rival 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
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171:, 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
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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
137:. 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
690:, Crapper, George & Wharam, Robert Marr, "Improvements in or relating to Automatic Syphon Flushing Tanks", published 11 January 1897, issued 6 March 1897
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in
Norfolk and asked Thomas Crapper & Co. to supply the plumbing, including thirty lavatories with cedarwood seats and enclosures, thus giving Crapper his first
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In 1904 Crapper retired, passing the firm to his nephew George and his business partner Robert Marr Wharam. Crapper lived at 12 Thornsett Road,
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his business he maintained a foundry and metal shop, which enabled him to try out new designs and develop more efficient plumbing solutions.
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origin and predates its application to bodily waste. Its most likely etymological origin is a combination of two older words: the
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In 1861 Crapper set himself up as a sanitary engineer with his own brass foundry and workshops in nearby
Marlborough Road.
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294:, originated with Thomas Crapper because of his association with lavatories. A common version of this story is that
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671:, Giblin, Albert, "Improvements in Flushing Cisterns", published 1 March 1898, issued 9 April 1898
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Manhole cover, inscribed "T Crapper & Co
Sanitary Engineers Marlboro Works Chelsea London"
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mechanism by which the water flow starts. A patent for this development was awarded in 1897.
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Crapper held nine patents, three of them for water closet improvements such as the floating
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Crapper held nine patents, three of them for water closet improvements such as the floating
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saw his name on cisterns and used it as Army slang, i.e., "I'm going to the crapper".
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It has often been claimed in popular culture that the vulgar slang term for human
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133:. He improved the S-bend plumbing trap in 1880 by inventing the
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in 1898. However, Crapper's nephew, George, did improve the
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425:"Three True Things About Sanitary Engineer Thomas Crapper"
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Hume, Robert (2010), "Thomas
Crapper: Lavatory Legend",
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McConnell, Anita (2004). "Crapper, Thomas (1837–1910)".
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Thomas
Crapper Branding on one of his company's toilets
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Thomas
Crapper history, Westminster Abbey, Sandringham
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809:Thomas Crapper Water Closet Products Advertisement
750:Thunder, Flush and Thomas Crapper: An Encyclopedia
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253:Crapper improved the S-bend trap in 1880. The new
229:bathroom fittings, who relaunched the company in
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562:"Difference between U, P, and S Traps explained"
771:Flushed With Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper
591:50 Things That Made the Modern Economy: S-Bend
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327:(siftings, waste or rejected matter, from the
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320:(to pluck off, cut off, or separate) and the
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384:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
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16:British businessman, plumber (died 1910)
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381:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
110: 1837; died 1902)
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643:Thomas Crapper – Fact and fiction
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224:Posthumous fate of the Crapper company
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650:from the original on 18 January 2020
611:"Thomas Crapper: Myth & Reality"
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462:from the original on 25 January 2022
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859:19th-century British businesspeople
849:People from Thorne, South Yorkshire
452:"Group Walks Gain Ground in London"
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423:Eschner, Kat (28 September 2017).
189:In the 1880s Prince Albert (later
155:have become one of London's minor
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193:) purchased his country seat of
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532:"When Did Thomas Crapper Die?"
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773:. Polperro Heritage Press.
167:Thomas Crapper was born in
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596:5 April 2018 at the
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