History of Sanitation

120 HISTORY OF SANITATION years later a patent was issued to Joseph Bramah, inventor of the hydraulic press, for a water closet with a valve at the One Stage in the Evolution of the Porcelain Enamel Bath bottom. Little progress was made in the im- provement of water closets dur- ing the next half century, and when in the year 1833 the first American patent was taken out the art had not advanced very far. Indeed, it might be said that until the time of the filing of the application for the Fraim and Neff patent, for a siphon closet, sanitary type of closet was not on the market. Bath tubs and lavatories have improved as much in appearance in the time that has elapsed as have water closets. The earliest bath tubs of which we have any knowledge were hewn out of mar- ble. Later, when bath tubs came into rather extensive use in the United States, they were made of wood, lined with either sheet zinc or sheet copper, tinned on one side, and it is only within com- paratively recent years that por- celain enameled tubs came into use, and that solid porcelain tubs were manufactured in this coun- try. Open plumbing was unheard of twenty-five years ago and in its stead plumbing fixtures were that a real cleanly and A Slop Sink of Long Ago