Thomas Crapper British plumber, founder of the Thomas Crapper company Country: Great Britain

Biography of Thomas Crapper

Early Life and Career
Thomas Crapper was a British plumber and the founder of the company "Thomas Crapper & Co." Contrary to popular belief, Crapper was not the inventor of the modern toilet. However, he developed many other useful plumbing items, including the flush toilet. For his inventions, Crapper received a royal order. His surname, which is unpleasant-sounding for modern English speakers, contrary to popular opinion, was not the ancestor of the slang word 'crap', a crude term for human waste.

Thomas Crapper was born in Thorne, Yorkshire, in 1836 and was baptized on September 28 of the same year. His father, Charles, was a sailor. In 1853, Thomas became an apprentice to his brother George, who was a professional plumber in Chelsea. After learning the trade from his brother and working as a plumber for three years, Crapper declared himself a sanitary engineer in 1861 and opened his own foundry in a neighboring town.

Contributions to Sanitary Engineering
The toilet flushing system was invented by John Harrington in 1596. Joseph Bramah from Yorkshire patented the first toilet in England in 1778. George Jennings patented the first flush toilet in 1852. However, very few people knew about plumbing technology until Crapper came along. He popularized plumbing and became a pioneer in the development of bathrooms.

In the 1880s, at the request of the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII, the United Kingdom acquired the private estate of the Sandringham House in Norfolk. Thomas Crapper & Co. was asked to provide plumbing for the estate, including 13 bathrooms with cedar seats. In 1904, Crapper retired and handed over his company to his nephew George and his business partner Robert Marr Wharam. Crapper passed away on January 27, 1910. In 1966, Wharam's son sold "Thomas Crapper & Co." to their competitors, John Bolding & Sons. Production was suspended until the Crapper firm was acquired by Simon Kirby, a historian and collector of antique bathroom fixtures. Kirby revived the company in Stratford-upon-Avon, where a wide range of high-quality products began to be produced. Kirby chose to maintain the original Victorian style that Crapper once followed.

The Origin of the Slang Word 'Crap'
In popular culture, it is often claimed that the slang word 'crap', used to refer to human waste, originated from Crapper's surname due to his association with toilets. One of the most common versions states that American soldiers stationed in England during World War I saw the Crapper name on tanks and expanded their military vocabulary. They started saying something like 'I'm going to the crapper.' However, the word 'crap' actually comes from Middle English. Etymological analysis of the word leads to a combination of two old words. The Dutch word 'krappen', meaning 'to cut off', 'to sever', or 'to separate', and the Old French word 'crappe', meaning 'chaff', 'sifting', and 'removal'. In English, the word 'crap' initially referred to chaff, weeds, and the like. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the slang variant of 'crap' was first used in 1846 in the phrase 'crapping ken' (meaning 'toilet').

Legacy
The manhole covers with the name of the Crapper company in Westminster Abbey are now tourist attractions in London. The Crapper company owned the world's first bath, toilet, and sink on King's Road until 1966.