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The Greatest Invention Ever

Forget the computer. Forget the telephone. The toilet truly changed our lives

Jan H Andersen/Shutterstock.com

FLUSH! 
You might think toilets are gross. But imagine life without them!

    The year was 1851. Millions of people from all over Europe were gathered in London, England. They were there to see an exhibit of the world’s most fascinating items

    There were beautiful stuffed zebras from Africa. There were statues carved out of white marble. There was even an enormous diamondthe largest on Earth

    But it was a very plain item that truly amazed the crowds. Over five months, 675,000 people waited in line to use it.

    This popular item wasn’t anything that would look very special to you. It was a toilet that flushed. Why was that such a big deal?

A Stinky Life

    Actually, it’s easy to understand why people were so excited about the flush toilet. At the time, life in London and other cities was stinky. It was dangerous too.

    Until the flush toilet was invented, getting rid of human feces [FEE-sees]—or poopwas a big challenge. People dumped it wherever they could

    They’d toss it into the street. They’d throw it into rivers and ditches. Can you imagine the terrible odor that must have filled the air?

    But the smell wasn’t the only problem. Human waste is filled with germs that can make you seriously sick. Even a small amount of feces can spread deadly diseases like cholera and typhoid

    In the old days, no one knew that feces could spread diseases. So people kept tossing their waste into ditches. When it rained, these ditches overflowed. The overflow got into wells used for drinking water. One glass of this dirty water could kill a person in days

Solving the Problem

    At first, the flush toilet only made things worse. All that flushed water still had to go somewhere. It didn’t fit into the ditches used for human waste. Soon, dirty water flooded the streets

    In London, one hot summer was known asThe Great Stink.” The smell was so terrible that many people left the city. In some places, poop piled up six feet deep.

    It took more than 10 years for London officials to solve the poop problem. How did they do it? City leaders built sewers. These were huge pipe systems that kept human waste away from drinking water

    Together, toilets and sewers saved lives. All that flushed water finally had somewhere to go. Fewer people got sick

    And life in London and other cities got much less stinky.

The Granger Collection (cholera); Science & Society Picture Library via Getty Images (ornate toilet)

Before Sewers: In the 1800s, people died from cholera and other diseases spread by human waste.

 

After Sewers: Early toilets and sewers helped humans get rid of poop—and saved lives. 

ACTIVITY
How did sewers save lives in London?

Write a paragraph to answer this question. Get started by using facts from the article to finish the sentences below

Topic Sentence: Before London had sewers, drinking water  ___                           

The main idea of your paragraph: Why was drinking water unsafe?

Detail 1To get rid of their waste, people simply  ___                           
What did people do with their waste

Detail 2When it rained ___                           

Where did waste end up when it rained?

Detail 3Flush toilets didn’t solve the problem right away, because  ___                           

Where did the water from toilets go

ConclusionSewers made life in London safer by ___                           

How did sewers help solve the problem?

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Higher Level: The Greatest Invention Ever

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Lower Level: The Greatest Invention Ever

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