Thunder, Flush and Thomas Crapper: O

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Extracts from Adam Hart-Davis's book.
(Buy the book from Micheal O'Mara Books, ISBN 1-85479-250-4 (Amazon.co.uk), hardback 1-85479-245-8 (Amazon.co.uk), or in the US, ISBN 1570760810 from Amazon.com.)

Optimus Valve Closet: The Optimus, pride and joy of plumber and writer SS Hellyer, was a direct development of the Bramah. The complex mechanism was tastefully hidden in the mahogany throne, and although it probably worked better than the Bramah, the Optimus scarcely represented any great advance in technology. Hellyer wrote in 1877:
There is no water-closet equal to a good valve closet---perfect in all its details---especially ... for private use in good houses ... the excrement falls into about a gallon of water, and directly the closet-handle is pulled the contents of the basin (every vestige of it) are sent with some force through the closet-trap to the regions below... .

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Text extracts from ``Thunder, Flush and Thomas Crapper'' copyright Adam Hart-Davis 1997.
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Site content copyright Damon Hart-Davis 1997--2008 unless otherwise stated.