As your “family plumber,” we at Caccia Plumbing always focused on taking your plumbing issues seriously, as if it were our own plumbing problem. However, we also recognize the funny and clever kinds of stuff around plumbing issues and the plumbing industry.

Great plumbing companies typically have a fun and interesting history full of fascinating facts you never knew. For fun, check out these exciting facts that you may not have known about plumbing that you can share with your co-workers or bring to your next trivia night!

History about Plumbing

  1. In the 1700 B.C, the Minoan palace of Knossos on the isle of Crete featured 4 different drainage systems that emptied into the great sewers constructed of stone.
  2. In 705 B.C, the Assyrian king Sennacherib developed a 10-mile long canal in three stages, including 18 fresh water courses from the mountains, two dams and water diversion and a chain of canals.
  3. In 800 B.C, the first sewers of Rome were built and are called the “Cloaca Maxima.”
  4. In 1596, Sir John Harrington invented a “washout” closet anew, similar to the drainage principle on the isle of Crete.
  5. In 1738, JF Brondel introduced the valve type flush toilet.
  6. In 1829, the Tremont hotel in Boston became the first hotel to have indoor plumbing, and housed eight water closets built by Isaiah Rogers.
  7. In 1948, England passed the nation Public Health Act, which become a model plumbing code for the world to follow.
  8. In 1857, the first packaged toilet paper was invented by American Joseph Gayetty and called “Gayettys’s Medicated Paper.”
  9. In 1858, George Jennings popularized public lavatories

Leaky leaks

  1. If the leak drips twice each minute, you’re wasting a gallon of water each week which adds up over time.
  2. There are about 1 out of 300 homes that are speculated to have a minor leak.
  3. A leaking faucet tap that drips once per second a day wastes about 30 liters of water per day which roughly dissipate around 10950 liters per year from one leaky faucet.

Pipes and Toilets

  1. Copper pipes are naturally antibacterial and 100% recyclable.
  2. Insulating your home’s pipes can lessen the amount of heat lost as your water travels from your heater to your faucet.
  3. The first fire sprinkler system was created by a British man named Sir William Congreve. He perforated pipes along with the ceiling and fixed a valve outside the building that could be opened to send water through them.
  4. John Harrington invented the flushing toilet in 1596, which is where we get the nickname “the John.” We also call the toilet “the crapper” because of Thomas Crapper, who widely increased the popularity of it.
  5. The floating mechanism in your toilet’s water tank is called a “ballcock” which controls the flow of the water.
  6. Around 75% of the household prefer that the flap of the toilet paper be faced down.
  7. In Japan toilets, they include heated seats, soothing music, and even TV’s to keep you entertained.
  8. The oldest toilet in the world, which is still in one piece is over 2000 years old and can be found in China.
  9. The average person visits the toilet about 6-7 times per day.
  10. King George II of Great Britain died in 1760 by falling off a toilet.
  11. If you were to install a slow flushing toilet, you could save up to 18,000 gallons of water a year! This is a large amount of water when you can waste over 3,000 gallons a year with a leaking faucet.
  12. The most expensive toilet in the world is located on the International Space Station. Costing a cool $19 million, the toilet not only straps astronauts in place, it also converts the waste from the toilet into drinking water.
  13. Contrary to popular belief, when you flush your toilet the water doesn’t spin the opposite way when you’re south of the equator. The direction the water flows is based on which way the toilet’s pipes were built, so it can spin either way in any part of the world.

The Origin of Plumber

  1. The word “plumber” comes from the Latin word “plumbum,” which means “lead.”
  2. Mario and Luigi of the video game Super Mario Brothers are plumbers. Mario, as Nintendo’s primary mascot, is, widely considered as the most recognized video game character of all time.
  3. Richard Nixon used the code name “plumbers” for the agents he used to prevent intelligence leaks from the White House.

Einstein Loved Plumbing

Albert Einstein was named an honorary member of the Plumbers and Steamfitters Union after announcing that he would be a plumber if he had to live his life all over again.

“If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make my living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber in the hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances.”

This quote earned him a lot of fans in the plumbing community.