Bring the Outhouse Indoors

One of the inventors and inventions that often goes overlooked when listing famous new ideas is one created by Dayton, Ohio resident, Philip Haas. Everyone cringes when they hear how people in history had to relieve themselves: either in a chamber pot indoors that was emptied by a servant or a smelly, cold outhouse separated from one's living quarters. In 1914, Haas filed patent number 1,107,515 for the "Detachable Flush-Rum Fixture." The flush toilet actually reached its infancy in the late 1700s when an Englishman invented a way to avoid odors by trapping water in a section of pipe. A valve was used to 'flush' waste down. Then, in the mid-1880s, an English plumber made improvements toward advancing indoor toilet technology. Believe it or not, his name was Thomas Crapper!

There are actually hundreds of toilet inventions that were eventually developed in the U.S. in the early 20th century. Being from Dayton, Ohio, Haas had plenty of company by others who sought to develop a new invention. The Wright Brothers, credited with inventing powered flight were from Dayton as was Charles Kettering, credited with inventing the automatic car starter among many other things.