Roadside Journal

Colorado professor
has the poop on Crapper

By Chuck Woodbury

Flushed with Pride : The Story of Thomas Crapper

, editor
Out West Newspaper

For the poop on Crapper, you can’t do much better than Dr. Andy Gibbons — an ex-professor flush with information on Thomas Crapper, the inventor of the flush toilet.

Gibbons, an ex-professor of library science, is the official historian of the Thomas Crapper Society — a 100-member worldwide group dedicated to the study of the successful English plumber and businessman who, at about the turn of the century, gave the world the flush toilet.

Gibbons, of Greeley, Colo., didn’t give a poop about Crapper until a few years back when he was told that Crapper never existed. Gibbons knew better, so he started doing research — and he’s been at it ever since. Along the way, his interest in Crapper earned him the title of historian of the Thomas Crapper Society.

Crapper, Gibbons points out, didn’t actually invent the toilet as we know it today, rather he invented the automatic flush device (including the float) in the upper part of the toilet. In early Crappers, the water tank was high on the wall; water gravity fed to the toilet below. Gibbons only knows of one original Crapper toilet accessible to the public today, and that’s in Seattle’s historic underground city, a popular tourist attraction.

Gibbons’ work has led him to England for serious research. There, he met a mayor named Crapper (no relation to Thomas) in a village near Oxford. He traveled to Crapper’s grave and even photographed Crapper manhole covers. Back in America, in Florida, he meet Thomas Crapper’s niece, Edith Crapper.

The word “crapper” as used as a synonym for toilet came into use during World War I when American soldiers saw Crapper’s name on English toilets. It wasn’t long before they began calling them “crappers.” But the word “crap” is unrelated. It comes from an old Dutch word coined long before Thomas Crapper’s day that meant (roughly) garbage or castoff.

Crapper left home at the age of 10 and walked 150 miles to London, where he became an apprentice plumber. He went on to become so successful that he was appointed the royal sanitary engineer to the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria and a king.

“He wan’t only a successful plumber, but a successful businessman,” explained Gibbons. “He had a catalog of hundreds of items. He was one of the first businessmen to have two telephones in his office.”

A book about Crapper, called “Flushed With Pride,” details Thomas Crapper’s life. Although it was published years ago, it has just recently been re-released.

In 1910, Thomas Crapper died of colon cancer at age 73.

From Out West #12, Oct., 1990

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