The Romans already built public toilets with streaming water 2.000 years ago. We find their remains not only in Europe (Pompeii, Ostia), but also in Africa.

In the Middle Ages the hygiene was not very developed. The progress in this domain is connected with Sir John Harrington, the godchild of Queen Elizabeth I., who invented a water closet. This happened in 1596. He had it installed in his house in Kelston not far from Bath. The Queen was so impressed, that she ordered one closet for the Richmond palace. Harrington´s toilet looked like the nowadays facilities, because it had a basin with clean water and a lavatory pan. The pan was filled through the vents with water. Water was spouting from ingeniously placed ducts, to wash the whole pan. The outflow did not lead into the sewerage but into the cesspool.

The water closet had to wait another 200 years for its innovator. Alexander Cummings was the one who devised the sliding closure between the pan and the outflow. Two years later, in 1477, Samuel Prosser received a patent for his closet with a “plunger” piston. The first producer of water closets was an Englishman Joseph Bramah, who started his business in 1778. But his toilets were above all used on the boats.

The real master among the English toilets´ producers appeared in the next decade: Thomas Twyford. He made the first compact lavatory pan from porcelain, instead of the commonly used metal or wooden parts. But the “insides” of the toilet were not changed at all. This change was included in the patent of J.G. Jennings in 1852. His pan had a shallow hollow, filled with water. The contents from this hollow was washed down with streaming water through an “odour-fastener” (the trap). In 1884 a medical exhibition took place in London. Here the gold medal was won by this splashing convenience, stately called a Pedestal Vase. One of its components was also a small oval board, which has been used up to now.

The first public water closets were opened in Fleet Street in London in 1852, but these were only for men. The toilets for women were opened later on in Bedford Street. They were built by sir Henry Cole and sir Samuel Peto, a construction entrepreneur. By the way Peto also built Nelson´s column on the Trafalgar Square in London. The fee for using the basic equipment amounted to two pence and it was expected to make some profit! Unfortunately only 82 people used the public toilets during the first year, though over 50.000 pcs of leaflets were distributed to explain their purpose. Despite the failure the next public toilets were opened in 1855. This time The London Municipal Administration was their owner. Only one pence was paid. Gentlemen didn´t have to pay anything, in case they were standing.

At the century´s break the innovation of the water closets were almost an everyday business. Between the years 1900 and 1932 The Patent office of the USA received 350 proposals. But only two of these innovators were successful: Charles Neff and Robert Frame. Their water closets later became a standard. The next development was only intended on the way of water dosing. In the last years the so called economy dosing machines made possible to choose the necessary quantity of water.