The toilet is the story of the emergence and development of a wonderful invention. History of the toilet The world's first toilet

During archaeological excavations on the Orkney Islands, located off the coast of Scotland, scientists discovered stone walls houses, recesses connected to gutters. The finds turned out to be latrines, about 5,000 years old, dating back to the Neolithic era. Today they are considered the most ancient. Slightly younger than them are those found during excavations in Mohenjo-Daro (on the banks of the Indus River) and represented a more complex sewer system: sewage from latrines made at external walls houses, flowed into street ditches, along which they left the city. The latrine was a brick box with a wooden seat. Those toilets of the ancient Egyptians, which we have an idea of ​​(mainly from excavations in Tell el-Amarna (XIV century BC) - the city of Pharaoh Akhenaten), are not connected to the sewer system, which, however, was well developed. In rich houses, behind the bathroom there was a latrine, whitewashed with lime. It contained a limestone slab placed on a brick box filled with sand, which had to be periodically cleaned out. In one of the ancient Egyptian burials in Thebes, dating back to the same century as the city of the famous pharaoh, a portable toilet made of wood was discovered, under which clay pot.In Mesopotamia already in the 3rd millennium BC. there were toilets connected to drains through which human waste flowed, collecting in brick sewer wells. The toilet seats in the homes of wealthy people were made of brick.
Story modern toilets starts at Ancient Greece and developed by the ancient Romans. In rich houses there were latrines, sometimes located on the second floor, sewage from which was drained using special vessels into the sewers. In poorer homes they were content with pots. First appeared in Ancient Rome public toilets on the street and at the thermal baths, decorated with marble and ceramic slabs, and sometimes decorated with paintings. Sewage went into drains under the seats, from which they were washed running water and were carried away through a pipe system into special collectors - sewers. The famous Roman drain Cloaca maxima, which began ca. 500 BC, still exists today. With the fall of the Roman Empire, much was lost, including the principles of urban sanitation.
Cloaka Maxima, marked in red

The sewerage systems built by the Romans in conquered territories were destroyed, and new sewerage systems were rarely built during the Middle Ages. The role of the toilet was played by an ordinary potty placed under the bed, the contents of which spilled directly onto the street. True, there were still toilets in the castles with a primitive sewage system: they went outside the premises, as if hanging over the castle wall, and from these booths there was a stone drain, through which sewage flowed.

During the Renaissance, the construction of urban sewerage systems began to pick up pace. Although the night vase remains the most popular, by the 18th century. which was already a real work of art: faience chamber pots were painted and decorated with inlay. Among the nobility, the fashion for portable ceramic bidets spread. By the way, many famous companies producing sanitary ware grew out of small manufactories that produced earthenware, night vases and bidets. Since the end of the 16th century, the mainstream of toilet construction has moved to Britain. In 1590 (according to other sources - in 1589, according to third sources - in 1594, according to fourth sources - in 1596), Sir John Harington created for Queen Elizabeth I a working model of a toilet with a cistern and a water reservoir - almost as we know it Today. Harrington described his invention in detail in 1596 in the book "Metamorphoses of Ajax", not forgetting to list all the materials used and their prices. The first device cost 30 shillings and 6 pence. However, as historians write, the inventor made two cardinal mistakes. One relates to the design itself, the other, as they would say today, to its PR. The first was that the ancestor of the current water closet smelled strongly, which the monarch often complained about. The second mistake concerned the name: the inventor called his brainchild “Metamorphosis of Ajax” (in English slang “jax” means outhouse), which was understood by contemporaries as a metamorphosis of the throne, which is why the queen had to listen to a lot of jokes that annoyed her. According to other, very original information, sixty-year-old Elizabeth did not like the innovation due to the fact that she was seriously afraid that through the sewer system her enemies could deprive her of her virginity and thereby harm her. However, since in the years when Harrington designed his technical miracle, Londoners did not have running water, there was no question of mass use of the device. Some 50 years later, the French responded to the British challenge with their invention. King Louis 14 was presented with an unusual gift - a ship in the form of soft chair, where you could sit for hours waiting for a pleasant “moment” and gossip with visitors. A few words about the inventor himself. Harrington (1560 - 1612) is a remarkable personality in all respects. Godson of Queen Elizabeth I, but not a sycophant. For some time he was even excommunicated from the court for disrespectful epigrams. Translated into English “Roland the Furious” by Ariosto. He took part in Essex's military campaign in Ireland, where he was elevated to knighthood. There is even an opinion that he belonged to the same circle of family and spiritual aristocracy as William Shakespeare, and supposedly there is reason to believe that Harrington also had a hand in writing some of Shakespeare's comedies. If the above is true, one can only be surprised at the involvement of the creator of the first water closet in the circle of William Shakespeare. Remember, reader, that not the last of his minds struggled with this problem of humanity’s problems! Another thing is 1775, when London watchmaker Alexander Cumming created the first flush toilet - by this time London already had running water. Soon, in 1778, another inventor, Joseph Bramach, came up with a cast-iron toilet and a hinged lid. This toilet was already a success - the townspeople quickly bought it up. The toilets were also made of enameled steel. One such example can be seen in the Hofburg, the Viennese residence of the Habsburgs. Soon a faience toilet appeared - it was more convenient to wash.

The golden hour of toilets struck in the 19th century. Unfortunately, it was not because of a good life that he struck. In 1830, Asiatic cholera, which spread through sewage-tainted water, wiped out millions of Europeans. Another scourge was typhoid fever. Governments have realized: it’s time to shell out money for sewerage. Accordingly, the question arose about modern-level toilet seats, to the development of which the creative mind of the designers turned. It was then that the “three musketeers” of toilet design appeared: George Jennings, Thomas Twyford and Thomas Crapper. Locksmith Thomas Krepper patented his invention - (a toilet with a flush barrel) from a small village in the north of England invented a modern toilet. The main thing in the invention is a U-shaped elbow with a water plug that cuts off the toilet room from sewer pipe(according to other sources, it was invented in 1849 by Stefan Green, who came up with a water trap - a U-shaped bend in the waste pipe between the toilet and the sewer, blocking the path back for bad odors. (Some sortirologists attribute the honor of inventing the “water trap” against stench to Cumming.) To enhance pressure, Krepper installed a tank of water under the ceiling, and attached a chain with a handle to the lever of the drain valve (again, perhaps it was Doulton).Two royal mechanics, George Jennings and Thomas Twyford, became interested in the invention of the village mechanic and, supplementing it with an automatic water inlet valve ( it didn’t even have to be invented - such a tap was on all locomotives), the creation was presented to Queen Victoria. Thomas Crapper became the most famous: the British still call toilets “crapper”, a long sitting in the toilet is denoted by the verb “crap”, and in the inventor’s native village there is a church, which is decorated with a stained glass window with a mosaic image of a toilet... And in 1915 the hour came for siphon cisterns, which can be placed very low - barely higher than the toilet seat. Although there is an opinion that modern toilet with a drain (though made of iron with an enamel coating), operating on the principle of a siphon, was developed in England even earlier - in 1870.
In 1912, 40,000 toilets were manufactured in Russia. Even the Bolsheviks did not dare to stop this bacchanalia - in 1929 Soviet Russia they made 150,000 toilets a year, and in Stalin’s first five-year plan, “sanitary faience” was a separate line: the country needed 280,000 toilets a year. The union, you know, is indestructible... This very device with a cast-iron tank under the ceiling and a handle on a chain is still preserved in station toilets and provincial military registration and enlistment offices. In the era of industrial housing construction in the 60s, “compact” toilets, that is, toilets with a lower earthenware cistern, came to new apartments. Today they make up 92% of the country's toilet fleet. The advantages of old-fashioned compacts include low price and a relatively long service life - 20 years. The disadvantages are also known to everyone: poor quality ceramics, which quickly leads to telltale yellowing, extremely low quality drain fittings, noisy set and flushing of water. Currently, hundreds of companies around the world are engaged in the production and sale of toilets. High tech have long become the norm in toilet construction. The modern closet is endowed with additional functions and characteristics, ranging from aesthetic to medical. Production toilet paper has a business turnover of 2.4 billion dollars per year. There is a toilet in almost every human home.

The design of this device has literally royal roots. A toilet seat with a bowl and a water flush was first demonstrated to Queen Elizabeth of England in 1596 by her godson John Harrington. According to legend, the queen was very clean and highly appreciated the device, ordering the same ones to be installed in Richmond Castle and Westminster. However, the nobility considered this extremely indecent, and the rise to power of the pious James I put an end to the ideas of water closetization in England. Harrington's invention was forgotten for almost two centuries in favor of chamber pots, which in those days in cities were usually emptied directly onto the streets (through windows).

In the XVII-XVIII centuries. /bm9icg===>every day, waves of cholera rolled over the densely populated cities of Europe one after another, claiming tens of thousands of lives. The cause of the disease was considered to be “poisonous miasma,” and only at the end of the 18th century did doctors begin to realize that the poor condition of the sewage system was directly related to epidemics. After the 1848 epidemic, which killed 14,000 Londoners and more than 55,000 residents of the country, the British government, concerned about public hygiene, passed a number of laws and allocated money for a major modernization of London's sewer system, which, in particular, required the presence of water closets in city houses.

The inventive thought did not sleep all this time. The first revolution was made by the Scottish mechanic and watchmaker Alexander Cummings - in 1775 he received a British patent for a drain valve and an S-shaped pipe (water seal), which prevented the penetration of odor into the room. Three years later, the system was improved by mechanic Joseph Bramah (the future inventor of the hydraulic press) - he proposed a hinged flap and also developed a float system for the tank.

The reign of Queen Victoria was a golden age for British plumbing. In 1852, George Jennings designed a bowl with a valve that opened only during flushing under the weight of water, and the rest of the time it reliably blocked the drain hole. In the 1870s, plumber and entrepreneur Thomas Krepper proposed raising the cistern to the ceiling to increase water pressure, and extending a chain with a handle to the lever. He also completely abandoned mechanical valves and dampers in favor of a water seal and for the first time widely used a siphon system instead of constantly leaking float valves. Finishing touch introduced in 1883 by Thomas Twyford, presenting his masterpiece - a single design of a bowl and a water seal not made of metal, but of much more aesthetic and hygienic earthenware. The unit, called Unitas (translated from Latin as “Unity”), was equipped with an upper tank designed by Krepper, as well as a lifting wooden seat. This masterpiece was the star of the 1884 International Health Exhibition in London. It was this model that determined the appearance of the modern toilet and, according to one version, gave it its name (there is another version - the toilet supposedly got its name from the name of the Spanish company Unitas, which supplied water closets to Russia).

History of the creation of the toilet

For the first time, mass production of earthenware toilets began in 1909 in Spain. At the beginning of the last century, a joint-stock company for the electrification of the country was organized there, which was called Unitas (“unity”, “union”). By order of this society, one of the factories near Barcelona began to produce faience insulators, and at the same time cast toilet bowls. And all the products were marked joint stock company"UNITAZ". From this mark the name of the hygiene product spread throughout the world.

A world without toilets

Archaeologists find fenced pits with petrified feces at almost all sites of Neolithic man. During archaeological excavations on the Orkney Islands, which are located off the coast of Scotland, archaeologists found depressions in the stone walls of houses that connected to gutters. The finds turned out to be latrines. The age of these toilets is about 5000 years. Today they are considered the most ancient. A little younger than them are those found during excavations in Mohenjo-Daro (on the banks of the Indus River) and represented a more extensive and complex sewer system: feces from the latrines, which were made near the outer walls of the houses, flowed into the street ditches along which they left outside the city. The latrine looked like a brick box with a wooden seat. Chinese archaeologists in Hunan province (Hongji region) have found a toilet of a monarch of the Western Han Dynasty. This rarity is more than 2000 years old. It was created approximately 50-100 BC. The flushing of waste from the human body was carried out using water from a water supply system, which the Chinese also invented before the Europeans. In the vaults of the British Museum there is a carved throne-toilet of the Sumerian queen Shubad, which was found in Ur and dates back to 2600 BC. And this design - “a chair with a hole above the pot” lasted for millennia and was only replaced by a water closet at the beginning of the twentieth century.

But the history of the water closet is also quite gray. Already in the 20th century BC. The palace buildings of the settlement of Knossos on the island of Crete were equipped with latrines that were connected to the sewerage system. IN ancient Egypt the toilets were not connected to the sewer system, which, however, was already well developed. In rich houses, behind the bathroom there was a toilet, whitewashed with lime. there was a slab of limestone laid on top of a brick box filled with sand, which had to be replaced periodically. In Thebes, in one of the ancient Egyptian burials, which dates back to the same century as the city of the famous pharaoh, a portable toilet made of wood was discovered, under which a clay pot was placed. The Greeks used simple pots, which are mentioned in ancient plays as weapons in domestic scandals - the last resort to break an opponent was to place a fully filled pot in the middle of the table. In Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC. There were already toilets that connected to drains through which human waste flowed, collecting in brick sewer wells. In wealthy houses, the seats were made of bricks

Toilet facilities Ancient Rome

In Ancient Rome, public toilets first appeared on the street and at thermae; they were decorated with marble and ceramic slabs, and sometimes even decorated with paintings. Sewage went into drains under the seats, from which they were washed out with running water and carried through a pipe system into special collectors - sewers. The famous Roman drainage cloaka MAXIMA, built in the 7th–6th century BC. e. Etruscan ruler Tarquinus Sperbus, was about five meters wide and stretched between the Capitoline and Palatine hills from the main city forum to the Tiber. The guardian of all this splendor was the goddess Cloakina. Cloaka MAXIMA remained the most advanced sewage system for many centuries after its construction, and it still exists today. The history of the sewers of Ancient Rome contains information about luxurious latrines (freeks), which served as meeting places and conversations accompanied by the murmur of drainage streams. And judging by the way the seats were located here, visiting these establishments was one of the forms of leisure for the townspeople and taking care of their needs was interspersed with conversations with people pleasant to their hearts. The stone seats formed a circle - like in an amphitheater. There was enough space for almost 20 people. Only very wealthy citizens could afford visiting such freaks.

Middle Ages

When the Roman Empire fell, much was lost, including the principles of urban sanitation. The sewerage systems that the Romans built in the territories under their control were destroyed, and practically no new sewerage systems were built in the Middle Ages. The role of the toilet was performed by an ordinary potty, which was placed under the bed, and the contents from it spilled directly onto the street. Charlemagne's night vase can be seen in the Avignon Museum. An ordinary copper pot with handles was all that the great ruler could afford. True, there were still toilets in the castles with a primitive sewage system: they went outside the premises, as if hanging over the castle wall, and from these booths there was a stone drain, through which sewage flowed. In the French "sieve" of Carcassonne you can see a toilet located at the very top outside the fortress wall. Sewage flowed down the stones, solidifying into anthracite lava over the centuries.

Another castle toilet system is a stone seat over a deep shaft. Here waste products could not be left as a souvenir for posterity, so once a year the goldsmiths lowered themselves onto ropes into the mine, scraped off the sewage from the walls and dumped it directly into the fortress moat.

In France they were not clever at all. The cry "Gare l"eau!" ("Attention! It's pouring!") meant that the contents of the pot would now pour directly onto the heads of passers-by.

Renaissance and toilet

During the Renaissance, the construction of urban centers began to gain momentum. waste systems sewerage. Although the most popular remains the night vase, which by the 18th century. was already a real work of art: faience chamber pots were decorated with inlays and painted.



The nobility began to fashion portable ceramic bidets.

By the way, many famous companies that now produce sanitary ware originated from small manufactories that produced crockery, earthenware, bedside vases and bidets. The thought of the Titans of the Renaissance could not avoid the problem of the toilet.

Leonardo da Vinci, when he was invited to the court of King Francois I, was so shocked by the stench of Paris that he designed a flush toilet especially for his patron. The Codex Leonardo contains a drawing made by the hands of a genius, which depicts a toilet. Leonardo's drawings indicate water supply pipes, sewer outlet pipes, and even ventilation shafts... But, as in the case of the submarine and helicopter, Leonardo was, as always, ahead of his time. The drawings remained drawings... The name of the great Leonardo, attached to the history of the toilet, raises the object itself to a certain height, flattering the vanity of the author. At that time, London toilets were built directly above the Thames. However, over time, the amount of drainage increased so much that it threatened to block the tributaries of the Thames. Then toilets began to be built right on city streets, giving them a very civilized look. One of these toilets is now in the Museum of London.

The Golden Age of the Toilet

Since the end of the 16th century, the mainstream of toilet construction has moved to Britain. In 1590, Sir John Harington created a working model of a toilet with a cistern and water reservoir for Queen Elizabeth I - almost as we know it today. The first toilet cost 30 shillings and 6 pence. However, as historians write, the inventor made two cardinal mistakes. One relates to the structure, the other, as they would say today, to its name. The first was that the ancestor of the current water closet smelled strongly, which the monarch often complained about. The second mistake concerned the name: the inventor called his brainchild “Metamorphosis of Ajax” (in English slang “jax” means outhouse), which was understood by contemporaries as a metamorphosis of the throne, which is why the queen had to listen to a lot of jokes that annoyed her. According to other sources, sixty-year-old Elizabeth did not like the innovation because she was seriously afraid that through the sewer system, enemies could deprive her of her virginity and thereby cause harm. But in those years when Harrington designed his technical miracle, there was no running water in London - widespread use of the device was out of the question. 50 years later, the French responded with their invention. King Louis 14 was presented with a ship in the form of a gift soft chair, in where you could sit for hours waiting for a pleasant “moment” and talk with visitors. In 1775, London watchmaker Alexander Cumming created the first flush toilet - by this time London already had running water. In 1778, another inventor, Joseph Bramach, invented the cast iron toilet and hinged lid. This invention was already a success - the townspeople quickly bought it up. Toilet bowls were also made of enameled steel. One such example can be seen in the Hofburg, the Viennese residence of the Habsburgs. Soon a faience toilet appeared - it was more convenient to wash. The golden hour of toilets struck in the 19th century.

Unfortunately, it was not because of a good life that he struck. In 1830, Asiatic cholera struck Europe, spreading through sewage-tainted water. Another scourge was typhoid fever. Governments have realized: it’s time to shell out money for sewerage. Here, the question arose about modern-level toilet seats. It was then that the “three musketeers” of toilet design appeared: George Jennings, Thomas Twyford and Thomas Crapper. Fitter Thomas Krepper patented his invention - a toilet with a flush barrel) from a small village in the north of England invented a modern toilet. The main thing in the invention is a U-shaped elbow with a water seal that separates the toilet room from the sewer.

To increase the flow, Krepper installed a water tank high under the ceiling, and attached a chain with a handle to the lever of the drain valve. Two royal mechanics, George Jennings and Thomas Twyford, became interested in the village mechanic's invention and, supplementing it with an automatic water inlet valve, which was used on steam locomotives of the time, presented the creation to Queen Victoria. Thomas Crapper became the most famous: the British still call toilets “crapper”, long sitting in the toilet is denoted by the verb “crap”, and in the inventor’s home village there is a church in which there is a stained glass window with a mosaic image of a toilet. And in 1915, the time came for siphon tanks, which can be placed very low - just above the toilet seat.

Our days…

In 1912, 40,000 toilets were manufactured in Russia.


Even the Bolsheviks did not dare to stop this bacchanalia - in 1929, in Soviet Russia they made 150,000 toilets a year, and in Stalin’s first five-year plan, “sanitary faience” was a separate line: the country needed 280,000 toilets a year. This very device with a cast-iron tank under the ceiling and a handle on a chain is still preserved in station toilets and provincial military registration and enlistment offices. In the era of industrial housing construction in the 60s, “compact” toilets, that is, toilets with a lower earthenware cistern, came to new apartments. Today they make up 92% of the country's toilet fleet. The advantages of old-fashioned compacts include low price and a relatively long service life - 20 years. The disadvantages are known to everyone: poor quality ceramics, which quickly leads to telltale yellowing, extremely low quality drain fittings, noisy intake and drainage of water.


Currently, hundreds of companies around the world are engaged in the production of toilets. High technologies have long become the norm in toilet construction. A modern closet is provided with additional functions and characteristics, ranging from aesthetic to medical. There is a toilet in almost every human home.

There is an opinion that civilization and sewerage do not exist without each other. The installation of toilets is, of course, part of the sewer system. Modern man can hardly imagine a toilet without a snow-white toilet with a flush cistern. But where did this miracle of comfort come from, have you ever wondered? It turns out that the history of the appearance of the toilet still causes heated debate in the scientific community. The opinions of historians and architects often agree on only one thing: that the roots of this intriguing story lie in ancient times, where we will now be transported in our minds.

Antiquity

It is believed that the distant ancestor of the first toilet on earth appeared in Mesopotamia around 3000 BC. e. But in Mohenjo-Daro, archaeologists also discovered a very ancient, only more advanced sewer system. In the restrooms there was a brick box with a wooden seat, which served as a latrine, from which sewage flowed through special grooves outside the settlement.

There is also a valuable historical find in the storerooms of the British Museum - this is an exquisite toilet seat of the Sumerian queen Shubad, made in the form of a royal throne, decorated with luxurious carvings. This item hygiene was born in 2600. BC e. Let's travel back in time...

Based on the results of excavations at Tell el-Amarna, archaeologists have the opinion that in ancient Egypt, toilets were not connected into a single sewer system. In the houses of rich Egyptians of the 14th century. BC e. The restroom was located next to the bathroom. Often the toilet was whitewashed separate room. The central place in it was a brick box, at the bottom of which there was sand. The Egyptians laid a limestone slab on top of the brick container. Apparently, the stove served as a seat. The toilet was cleaned as it filled.

Scientists working in the Henan province of China are very lucky. During excavations, in the tomb of one of the great rulers of the Western Han Dynasty, a stone toilet with a seat, armrests and, most surprisingly, with running water was discovered.

Speaking about sewerage, it is impossible not to mention the ancient engineering structure Rome Cloaca Maxima, which in the 6th century. BC. was an open channel. The purpose of the canal was to drain the soil and lower dirty waters into the river. Every city toilet in Rome had a sewer branch. Seats with a hole were usually placed directly above the channel, so that the constantly flowing water would wash all the waste products of the Romans into the Tiber. For the Romans, going to the toilet was considered a social event, at which quite important matters were sometimes discussed. For ease of communication, the seats in the toilets were not separated by partitions.

Middle Ages

Unfortunately, medieval Europe unlike ancient civilizations, it did not shine with cleanliness and sanitation. The contents of the chamber pots were unceremoniously thrown out of the windows onto the street by the townspeople. Among the nobility, toilet seats decorated with carvings and fabric drapery with a hole made in them and a special reservoir placed underneath were popular as a “portable toilet.”

Shocked by the Parisian stench, inventor Leonardo da Vinci invented and designed a flush toilet for King Francis I, vaguely reminiscent of a modern toilet. The unique drawings of the great inventor depicted sewer drainage channels supplying clean water pipes and ventilation. But it was customary for the European nobility to use “night vases,” often in public. It is known that french king Louis XIV considered it very impolite to stop an important conversation because of a natural desire to go to the toilet. Continuing the conversation, Louis XIV absolutely without hesitation moved to the inlaid precious stones and a gilded special chair with a hole and relieved himself in the presence of others.

By the way, at balls and social receptions everything happened similarly. But if the gentlemen handled the pots without problems, the ladies of the court experienced certain inconveniences due to their fluffy skirts. To the delight of society ladies in the 16th century. Burdala (lady's duck) was invented small size, which easily hid under numerous skirts).

Technical breakthrough

History says that in 1596, a toilet with a flush cistern was invented for Queen Elizabeth I by J. Harington. The inventor gave his brainchild the name “Ajax” and documented its description in a book (down to listing the manufacturing materials and their cost). The price for a toilet is decent, but that’s not why it’s so useful item everyday use did not become widespread, but due to the lack of sewerage and water supply in London.

The valve-type flush toilet was invented in 1738. A little later, A. Cummings developed a water seal that helps solve the problem of eliminating unpleasant odors. And in 1777 J. Preiser added a valve and a handle to the design of the flush cistern. In 1778, inventor J. Bramah came up with the design of a cast-iron toilet with a hinged lid. Toilets made of enameled steel and earthenware appeared much later. In the history of the invention of toilets, T. Krepper became more famous than anyone else because he invented a system for dispensing water from a tank located at a height (“pull the chain”). In addition, in Krepper's drawings, a curved drain pipe with a water seal was used for the first time.

Mass production

Serial production of toilets began in 1909. Spanish company Unitas. At the very beginning they were sold under the very long name “hygienic ceramic products”, but over time the name was replaced by the short “toilet bowl”.

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  There are toilets with a separate cistern, with a cistern installed on a shelf (the so-called compact), and monolithic. Separately located tanks require installation of a connecting pipe between the tank and the bowl. Earlier designs of toilets involved installing the tank at a height of about 2 m to create a flow of water at a sufficiently high speed. Subsequently, this design was replaced by compact toilets, which were easier to install and maintain. There are also toilets that require hidden installation tank.

  Bowl

  During the production process, the toilet bowl is cast in such a way that the visible open part of the bowl smoothly passes into the siphon located in the depths of the bowl (provides a water, that is, a hydraulic seal for gases formed and accumulating in sewer system), which then smoothly turns into an “exhaust” (actually an exhaust pipe).

  Structurally, according to the direction of release, toilets are divided into two main groups - with a “horizontal” release and with a “vertical” release:

  Toilets with “horizontal” outlet- the outlet of such a toilet is usually located at the rear of the bowl and directed backwards. The outlet pipe itself protrudes noticeably from the toilet body, and the outlet axis is located parallel or at a slight downward angle to the plane of the floor (or ceiling). Toilets with a downward-facing outlet are often called "slant-outlet toilets."

  Such toilets are widespread primarily in Europe, including Russia and the CIS. Historically, this is due to the fact that the laying of sewer pipes here was carried out, as a rule, along the ceiling, usually along the walls (or partitions). And toilets with horizontal release They are installed in the same way, as a rule, against the wall, at right angles to it.

  The outlet pipe of such a toilet is connected to the sewer pipe, usually with a special cuff. These toilets are attached to the floor (ceiling) through special holes in the bowl leg using screws with dowels or anchors. To install a toilet of the second type with a downward outlet in the case where the sewer pipes are located on top of the ceiling, the floor level under the toilet would have to be raised at least 15...20 cm above the ceiling level in order to hide the sewer bed, which is not always allowed by the design of the toilet and adjacent rooms (floors of different heights are obtained). An eccentric collar is used to connect such outlets with bends.

  Toilets with “vertical” outlet have a built-in outlet pipe directed downward, hidden, like the siphon, in the main body of the toilet bowl. Such toilets are common in the USA and several other American countries. Here, for a long time, the routing of sewer pipes was carried out under the ceiling without reference to walls and partitions (together with the routing of ventilation and other engineering systems). Then these engineering Communication were closed with a suspended or suspended ceiling, as is the case today.

  A type 2 toilet with a downward outlet in this case can be installed at any angle to the walls anywhere in the room, even in the middle of the room. To do this, a special standard screw flange with a lock is mounted in the floor (the toilet is equipped with a corresponding standard mating part) and with round hole in the middle, into which the end of the sewer pipe is inserted.

  The toilet is mounted by installing it on the flange and then turning it at a slight angle until it is fixed. At the same time, since the outlet pipe “looks” down, when installing the toilet, it is pressed against the end of the sewer pipe through a special sealing ring. Screw design flange connection allows you to dismantle and change the toilet in a matter of minutes. The very place where the toilet is connected to the floor is not visible after its installation, so such a toilet looks aesthetically pleasing from the rear, that is, from the side of the tank, which makes it possible to install it indoors in any way.

  Flush cistern

  The tank is designed to supply the portion of water necessary to clean the toilet bowl. Compact toilet cisterns are usually made of ceramic, while freestanding cisterns can be made of plastic, cast iron, of stainless steel and other materials.

  A filling mechanism and a release mechanism are mounted in the tank. To fill the toilet, a float valve is used, which closes when it reaches required level water. The pipe for connecting to the water supply can be located either on the side surface (a tank with a side water supply) or at the bottom of the tank (with a bottom connection).

  The descent mechanism is of two types: siphon and using a pear. Siphon release was used in tanks high installation- in it, when descending after releasing the drain lever, water continues to flow due to the siphon effect. This design is quite noisy.

  For low-lying tanks, the drain mechanism uses a rubber bulb, which floats up when the drain is activated and returns to its place, blocking the drain hole, only after the tank is emptied. To protect against overflow, an additional pipe is required, which can be either combined with the bulb or made as a separate unit. Dual-mode drainage mechanisms are also becoming widespread, which allow you to drain both the entire volume of water in the tank and a certain part of it.

  toilet seat

  Historically, the first seats and covers were made of wood, varnished. Currently, plastic structures are more common - they are more hygienic. Seats and covers differ in the quality of plastic and fastener design. In most cases, several toilet seats can be selected for the same toilet model: the so-called soft, semi-rigid and hard. The fastening of the toilet seat to the bowl can be metal or plastic, of various designs.