The Toilet Yes...those tales you've heard are true. The toilet was first patented in England in 1775, invented by one Thomas Crapper, but the extraordinary automatic device called the flush toilet has been around for a long time. Leonardo Da Vinci in the 1400's designed one that worked, at least on paper, and Queen Elizabeth I reputably had one in her palace in Richmond in 1556, complete with flushing and overflow pipes, a bowl valve and …showed first 75 words of 1210 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1210 total…free flowing". The formula is, of course, secret. In the 19th century, writer and thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson expressed a fear that perhaps we all feel to some extent, that "things are in the saddle and ride Mankind". But with the help of good household reference books, friendly reference librarians, and helpful manufacturers only too willing to help consumers understand their products, we can at least get a rein on the technology in our homes.