Bogs, Baths and Basins: The Story of Domestic Sanitation

Toilets, baths and washbasins are taken for granted in today's privileged society, but they are some of our most indispensable facilities. How did they come about, and how did we live without them? From Roman times to modern-day luxury, David J. Eveleigh leads us through the story of sanitation. With the aid of new research he briefly looks into the early rather primitive sanitation devices such as cesspits and urban dung heaps, and moves on to describe the advances that came with the onslaught of developing technology from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Victorian developments in water supply and the growth of piping and steam-powered pumps finally lead to the comparative comforts of today. The progression of baths and washbasins is also followed, with evidence of their practicality rising as they became fixed rather than moveable, eventually resulting in the arrival of the en-suite bathroom in the nineteenth century along with the introduction of decorative tiles and attachments. With first-hand accounts and evidence from diaries and contemporary records, this book traces the history of inventions that have affected everyone throughout history, told with a lively combination of human interest and drama.