British Hopes Dashed

[Laurel]

The Chain Is Pulled on Britain's Crapper

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has flushed Britain's claims to have invented the water closet down the pan with the discovery of a 2,000-year-old toilet complete with running water, a stone seat and a comfortable armrest.

Archaeologists found the antique latrine in the tomb of a king of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC to 24 AD), who believed his soul would need to enjoy human life after death, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

``This top-grade stool is the earliest of its kind ever discovered in the world, meaning that the Chinese used the world's earliest water closet which is quite like what we are using today,'' Xinhua quoted the archaeologists' report as saying.

``It was a great invention and a symbol of social civilization of that time,'' Xinhua said.

The invention of the flush toilet is widely attributed to London plumber Thomas Crapper, who patented a U-bend siphoning system for flushing the pan in the late 19th century, and who also installed toilets for Queen Victoria.

Among other inventions claimed by China are toilet paper, fireworks, gunpowder, the compass, paper money, kites, printing and the clock.

The toilet tomb was discovered in Shangqiu county in the central province of Henan, Xinhua said.

Archaeologists also found a queen consort's stone tomb, more than 690 feet long and consisting of more than 30 rooms including a bathroom, toilet, kitchen and an ice-store.

 

[Mensa]

Just wondering

Is it true that Queen Victoria liked to play cards while on the "throne" hence the name for the best hand...Royal Flush?

 

[Skibum]

This must be a real bummer for our British cousins. Any of you guys across the pond disappointed?

 

[Gaucho]

The Chain Is Pulled on Britain's Crapper

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has flushed Britain's claims to have invented the water closet down the pan with the discovery of a 2,000-year-old toilet complete with running water, a stone seat and a comfortable armrest.

Archaeologists found the antique latrine in the tomb of a king of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC to 24 AD), who believed his soul would need to enjoy human life after death, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

Was the king's name HooFlungDung?

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

"Discovery" is a tricky word.

The Vikings found the New World first, but Columbus established a colony which led to continuous trade and exploration, so he gets the discovery credit.

Many people had theorized and experimented with the ideas of Natural Selection and Evolution, but Darwin put the ideas down simply on paper and follwed them up with unique observations, and so he gets the "discovery" credit.

Same goes for Freud regarding psychoanalysis and Marx regarding Communism -- ideas that didn't originate with them, but were refined and expressed so clearly as to make their application seem possible.

In "The Discoverers" Daniel Boorstin talks about how the Chinese's "closed society" doomed them to be the "discovered" in the eyes of history, rather than the discovers. In other words, rarely did they send their ships across the sea or seek out new trade routes or explore far away cultures -- China was the center of the world and the world ought to come to China.

So if China did have the toilet sooner it's fairly certain no traveling salesmen went to London with a catalogue. The invention, therefore, didn't change world fashion, was not "taken up" by other nations and didn't influence the historical mindset.

So I think Crapper can lose his "inventor" status, but keeps the mantle of "discoverer."

 

[Ezzy]

As a Brit I will defend the W.C. to the end of time,but even I will admit that the Romans had multi seat W.C.'s that used running water to carry the waste out to the drains.
As for the "discovery" of the new world did this only occour when peoples from Europe "found" it or with the clovis peoples over 10,000 yrs ago or should we go back to the preclovis peoples.
The line between "invention" and "discovery" is somewhat blured and with the "rediscovery" as well I suppose.

EZ

 

[donnie]

The Chinese may have invented the toilet.
It was an Englishman who invented the toilet seat.
But it took a Scotsman to cut a hole in it.