Useful Information About the History of Indoor Plumbing

When you think about your bathroom, you may concentrate on things like layout, colors, and finishes. But have you really ever paused to think about how your plumbing came to be?

Like many other things in our society, your indoor plumbing has evolved over time in style, construction, and use.

Here is a brief overview of the history of indoor plumbing.

The Origins of Indoor Plumbing

It is widely believed that the first plumbing originated in what is today known as India in about 4000-3000 B.C. Archeologists uncovered copper piping in the ruins of an ancient palace.

A few centuries later in about 600 B.C, in Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar II had bathrooms in his palace that had drains, along with latrines that featured raised seats, connected by a covered sewer system.

Plumbing Through the Ages

Indoor plumbing continued to evolve through the next centuries. The Egyptians made some significant advances with indoor plumbing when they constructed elaborate bathroom in their pyramids. Believing that the dead required all of the same comforts of the living, they built the same bathrooms into their tombs.

The Ancient Romans to this day as are hailed as some of the most innovative and skilled plumbers in history, in part because of the extensive aqueduct system that extended over hundreds of miles. The aqueduct system moved water with gravity into some homes and into public and private baths that the Romans were famous for. This water into the baths was heated with furnaces

The Romans also changed up the material of their piping to lead, which did much more than other materials to help with sanitation. Wastewater from the baths ran through the floor into the Tiber River.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, advances in indoor plumbing slowed a bit. Even in the 18th century, Marie Antoinette did not have toilets in her expansive Versailles palace, even though King Louis XIV had ordered the construction of a cast-iron main plumbing line in 1664.

Plumbing continued to evolve but was not common in most households until a couple of centuries later.

Modern Plumbing

Plumbing as we know it in Scottsdale, AZ continues to evolve. The most notable advances in indoor plumbing today have not only to do with sleek design to complement your décor, but also offer environmentally friendly features as well.

In the last few years, new dual flush toilets, low-flow shower-heads and motion sensor faucets all offer homeowners environmentally friendly options that also reduce water bills.