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Revision as of 17:07, 12 March 2005 by David Gerard (talk | contribs) (expand and reorganise a bit; British spellings for British topic)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Thomas Crapper (baptized September 26, 1836; d. January 27, 1910) was a plumber who founded Thomas Crapper & Co. Ltd. in England.
Thomas Crapper & Co. Ltd.
Crapper was born in Waterside, Yorkshire (near Thorne), in September 1836 (the exact date is unknown). His father Charles was a steamboat captain. At the age of 14, Crapper was apprenticed to a master plumber in Chelsea, London. After his apprenticeship and three years as a journeyman plumber, in 1861 he founded his own company at Robert Street, Chelsea. In 1866 he moved the business to nearby Marlborough Road (now Draycott Avenue), where he pioneered the concept of a shop as bathroom fittings showroom.
The manhole covers with Crapper's company's name on them in Westminster Abbey are now a minor tourist attraction.
Thomas Crapper retired in 1904, passing the firm to his nephew George and his partner Robert Marr Wharam. The original Thomas Crapper & Co. Ltd. was sold by then-owner Robert G. Wharam (son of Robert Marr Wharam) on his retirement to their rivals John Bolding & Sons in 1966. Bolding then went into liquidation in 1969.
The name fell out of use until 1998, when it was acquired by a new owner, a historian and collector of antique bathroom fittings, who relaunched the company in Stratford-upon-Avon, producing authentic reproductions of Crapper's original Victorian bathroom fittings.
Crapper and the syphonic flush toilet
One common myth has it that Crapper invented the flush toilet. He did indeed hold nine patents, three of them for water closet improvements such as the floating ballcock, but none were for the flush toilet. Alexander Cummings held the original English patent for the syphonic flush toilet, despite Thomas Crapper's advertisements implying the syphonic flush was his invention.
His nephew, George Crapper, did improve the siphon mechanism by which the water flow is started. A patent for this development was awarded in 1897.
The word "crapper"
In the United States, the word "crapper" is a dysphemism for "toilet," although it is not clear if this has anything to do with Thomas Crapper. The term first appeared in print in the 1930s, and it has been suggested that U.S. soldiers stationed in England during World War I (some of whom had little experience with indoor plumbing) saw many toilets printed with T. Crapper in the glaze and brought the word home as a synonym for "toilet." Another theory is that the association came from the verb to crap, meaning "to defecate" (recorded since 1846 according to Oxford and Merriam-Webster), and the connection to Thomas Crapper is conjectured by Hart-Davis to be an unfortunate coincidence of his surname. Yet another explanation is that Crapper's flush toilet advertising was so widespread that "crapper" became a synonym for "toilet" and people simply assumed that he was the inventor. "Crapper" remains an Americanism, and is still in common usage, albeit in a jocular manner.
The noun crap is old in the English language, one of a group of words applied to discarded cast offs, like "residue from renderings" (1490s) or in Shropshire, "dregs of beer or ale", meanings probably extended from Middle English crappe "chaff, or grain that has been trodden underfoot in a barn" (c. 1440), deriving ultimately from Late Latin crappa, "chaff." The occupational name Crapper is a variant spelling of "Cropper".
Reference
- Adam Hart-Davis, Thunder, Flush and Thomas Crapper: An Encycloopedia (ISBN 1570760810, ISBN 1854792458 or ISBN 1854792504) —addresses many of the myths surrounding Thomas Crapper and his inventions.
- Wallace Reyburn, Flushed With Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper (ISBN 1857028600) — exaggerated satirical biography of Thomas Crapper, as well as the history of his company
External links
- Thomas Crapper & Co. Ltd. — the current company of that name
- Thomas Crapper — Fact & Fiction (Adam Hart-Davis)
- Snopes Urban Legends Reference Pages: Business (Thomas Crapper)
- Online Etymology Dictionary