Historical Plumbing and today's relevancy

History of Water Usage and Why it is Relevant to this Day.

Water is essential to the functions of human life. Biologically, it is a given fact that we just can not survive without water. However, water also plays an essential role that does not have to do with its direct consumption. Water also plays a semi passive role in our lives; whether it is used for showering and sewage, or whether it is used for rinsing and plant irrigation, water is crucial to have to uphold a functioning human life. Now, you might say that non biological water consumption is only relevant today, that historically, it was not as crucial, which brings us to the history of water usage. It is because of the great successes and the terrible failures that have paved the path for modern plumbing.

Hydraulic engineering, a historical point of view.

Hydraulic engineering is essentially what is called ‘water control’, which, to a certain degree, is plumbing at its crudest and most primitive form. When you think about it, it does not seem that far off of a statement. In dry regions where civilization started (Mesopotamia), rainfall that was required for agriculture and drinking was not frequent and holds little yield when rainfall does happen. Other factors such as droughts and famine causing insects (Such as locusts) threaten the already fragile and water dependent agriculture. The people of Mesopotamia then have to turn to hydraulic engineering to direct water where it is needed the most. Channels were made to direct water to agriculture and directed away to dispose of waste material that are produced by the animals. Time and time again, historical civilization has shown the importance of this crude plumbing; whether it is for irrigation such as that of Mesopotamia, the great baths for necessary sanitation in Mohenjo-daro, aqueducts to transport life sustaining water in the Roman empire or reservoirs during the monsoon for Khmer civilization. These archaic hydraulic engineering practices paved the way to modern plumbing.

Toilets, yes really.

We do not give it a second thought, but the toilet has come a long way from what it was in ancient times. The crudest toilets to be thought of are those made from the ground: holes dug from the ground, where fecal matter can be buried and forgotten. Later throughout humanity’s progression, ‘crafted’ toilets started to be developed. These toilets were mostly possessed by royalties to show their power and wealth, such as that of the kings in the island of Crete and the surrounding islands. The toilets are ceramic in foundation, and are able to be flushed with a bucket of water. Even the Romans had toilets, some had communal toilets where people can gather and talk about their lives whilst all defecating collectively. The first ‘flushable’ toilet was that of Queen Elizabeth the first. Invented by Elizabeth’s godson, Sir John Harrington his toilet invention is what inspires the modern design. However, John Harrington’s design did not blow up until the watchmaker Alexander Cummings developed the S shaped pattern to block off the smells. The engineering processes took about 200 years for it to finally reach the S shaped structure it has today, what a journey!
​Surely, without modern toilets, you can bet that your home and workplace will be much less sanitary. Imagine yourself at work, that each and every time you need to relieve yourself, you have to go outside and do your business out in the open communal washroom. Sounds ridiculously unpleasant, does it not? The lavatories today are a crucial part in today’s sanitation and new and inventive ways are done that reduce the waste. For example, the bidet. What exactly is a bidet? A bidet is a plumbing fixture that sprays water where it is needed without the use of toilet paper and other wipes. Though, despite the fact that this method of cleaning has been around for ages (With the earliest reference of the bidet to be back in the 17th century), new technology has allowed ease of use as well as helping out against the climate crisis. With our global water supplies at risk of shortage, it becomes important to understand the quantity of water that is being used up when it comes to production goods. A single toilet roll takes up to 140 litres (37 gallons) versus the 0.5 litres required to operate a single flush and wash. Already, there is a stark difference between net water consumption. If you would like to preserve water usage, then perhaps consider using a bidet. If you have a new bidet (or any toilet of that matter) that needs to be installed, we provide plumbing installations for those appliances.

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“Pipes” back then versus Pipes these days.

The purpose of a pipe in plumbing is to transport water and gases over large stretches of land or through a complex environment, such as a home. However, the pipes you think of today have gone a long way from their primitive forms. Take in consideration the ancient aqueducts. The earliest aqueducts are crucial for getting water into populated areas, where people would normally have to travel a long distance to retrieve the water. The aqueducts look like sky bridges, but the only thing that they are getting across the land is water, just like a modern day water pipe. This ginormous build is what allowed more advanced civilizations to build homes and grow agriculture while being far from a sustainable water source. Its importance is even still used to this day, denoting a system of pipes, canals and ditches that creates an artificial water course.
​Pipes before the recent epoch were not made of steel or metal, instead, pipes were constructed out of wooden logs with a hole excavated from end to end. We have come a long way on how we brought forth the transportation of water through pipelines. If a log pipe we damaged, a simple wooden plug would do the trick. 
In modern times, we rely on steel and metal pipes to transport the water where it is needed the most. However, the problems stemming from metal pipes are not simply fixed by a plug, to which the process requires a completely different approach. Despite having increased complexity, metal pipes do not rot as such as wooden pipes, but keep in mind that they do rust and get damaged by corrosion, so diligent checkups and inspections to monitor their conditions is never a bad idea.

The Evolution to Modern Sewers.

If it was not for sewers, your commune to work or school would be filled with terrible smells, the indoors environment will become unbearably wretched and diseases will spread with increased speed due to the poor sanitation. These scenarios sound terrible, however, not too long ago, those were the conditions people lived in. When Europe’s population was booming, the demand for a sanitation system was on the rise. Dangerous cesspools (A cesspool is a contain that contains solid and liquid waste materials) and an open sewer is what defined sanitary life in growing European cities (London England at the time is a good example, view “The great stink” of London England in the section below). Despite these disgusting circumstances, that was the sanitary standard for London. Of course, they had planned to revamp the sewage system for a while, but very little action was done to do so.
​You might (or might not be) asking, has it always been this bad? To answer this, a few considerations should be acknowledged. Being that this was the standard for sewage at the time, those conditions were normal to them. It may have looked inadequate to have such a system, but out of comparison to even more ancient systems, it progressed quite a bit from its primitive stages (Both forwards and backwards). As stated before, toilets and latrines were used by the ancient Minoans (And probably later than that), they were crude, but it paved the way to how things are done today. However, as the population grew and the density grew larger, technology then was not able to accommodate indoor plumbing for the masses, the people’s way of getting rid of their wastes took a massive nosedive in quality. How the people get rid of their excrements and wastes was to dispose of it out of the stress below with a toss of a bucket.
After discovering and confirming that disease can in fact spread through the water (And that it is not just miasma and bad air), there was a push to have water pipes to go inside the homes and out of the homes, however with no adequate sewer plan, this lead the cesspools to fill beyond capacity, forcing the development of an open sewer plan close to the streets where pedestrians are exposed to. At last, closed sewer systems were adopted which helped in dealing with cholera outbreaks. However, of course, another problem arose: Where does the sewage wastes go? Debates were made to have the waste go to the agriculture field while others argued to have it dumped into the large bodies of water (Primarily the oceans and seas), ultimately, dumping human wastes into the large water bodies became the most prominent choice. Water filtration (Before consumption) was then adopted and with that, sanitation rose while the spread of diseases (Such as typhoid) became less and less numerous.

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The Push for Modern Plumbing.

The infamous event of London England’s “great stink” might have been the push needed to incorporate modern plumbing into the city of London England. The sanitation of historical London has been awfully questionable, as without sufficient plumbing to divert the waste away from the city, the Thames river has been ground zero for all the waste to go. Without proper sewers (At this point, the Thames river was basically the sewer), sanitation was essentially thrown out the window for the crows to feast on. This in turn has the effect that when a disease hits, an outbreak will be primed, and that is what happened. Cholera made its way into London England and an outbreak followed, killing thousands of people in the city. This was due to the improper plumbing and sewer system that was implemented. Some water supply had faulty walls which insufficiently separated drinking water with that of contaminants. 
In modern times, scenarios such as these rarely happen, as modern plumbing and water management has strict regulations to prevent errors. Improper management and neglect sometimes still happen, for example, the Walkerton incident in Ontario has been dubbed the worst water related tragedy. This incident happened when too few regulations were placed, causing 7 deaths and affecting about 2000 people. This is why it is always important to regularly monitor your plumbing system, so when mishaps such as this were to happen, you will not take a damaging blow. 
If you fear that your water treatment system is in disarray, it may be wise and have a plumbing inspection soon. It is better safe than sorry when it falls to what comes out of your faucets.

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The Takeaway.

The takeaway from this information is that modern plumbing plays an important role in our day to day lives. Plumbing systems allow sanitation to be accessible via showers, toilets, sinks and baths. This in turn has the passive effect that allows us to live longer lives which gives humanity more time to progress and develop as a species. But it is important to know that all of this only came to be with the sacrifices and mistakes made along the way, as well as the events and circumstances that pushed for a cleaner, more civilized society. Just as humans cannot survive long without food, water and shelter, humans will find it difficult to remain healthy without the proper sanitation practices. Whether it is disease prevention, convenience of smell or basic sanitary practices (Such as for the self and products we eat), the plumbing infrastructure plays just as an important role as agriculture (As no crops would grow if there were no pipes to transport water to the crops). Be diligent about the condition of your plumbing, if you are dependent on automated filtered water, having a functional toilet, shower and bath, or if you are dependent on our sink or dishwasher, consider the condition of your appliances to ensure nothing is faulty. It may save you money, time and your health to have everything functioning properly.