20 Weird scraps of information about plumbing from a toilet wholesaler

As a toilet wholesaler and purveyor of wholesale plumbing supplies, we don’t get a lot of fun in our day! Sometimes however, we like to gather interesting facts to lighten the mood and make the day go faster.

If you are up for a little fun, then you will appreciate these weird, strange and interesting scraps of information we have put together about our favourite topic – plumbing and toilets.

  1. The colloquial term for a toilet is ‘the john’, because the flushing toilet was invented by John Harrington in 1596.
  2. The origin of the word ‘plumber’ comes from the Latin ‘plumbum’, which means ‘lead’ and was used because some of the earliest plumbing pipes were made from lead.
  3. As a toilet wholesaler, we were interested to find out that toilets theoretically can flush in opposite directions between the northern and southern hemispheres, due to the Coriolis effect, but since there are lots of other factors involved, you need ideal conditions to demonstrate this weird fact.
  4. On 25th October 1760, King George II of Great Britain, died falling off a toilet or fell off the toilet and died – who really knows!
  5. Copper piping was used by the Egyptians 3000 years ago for their own plumbing.
  6. Albert Einstein was made an honorary member of the Plumbers and Steamfitters Union after saying the if he had to do it all again – he would become a plumber.
  7. Ozzie Osbourne used to be a plumber’s apprentice – just imagine if he had become a toilet wholesaler!
  8. Snakes can navigate your plumbing and enter through the toilet.
  9. Most people will spend at least 3 years of their life sitting on the toilet.
  10. Toilet paper was invented in 1857 by Joseph Gayetty and sold in the USA in flat sheets embossed with the inventor’s name.
  11. 75% of people have the toilet paper flap in the front.
  12. In 1965, nearly 50% of Australian homes were not connected to the sewage system.
  13. As a toilet wholesaler we know that a low-flush toilet will save the average family nearly 70,000 litres of water each year.
  14. Flushing the toilet uses nearly 40% of the average Australian family’s water usage.
  15. Waiting for the water to heat up while running the tap wastes nearly 35,000 litres of water each year.
  16. A slowly dripping tap can waste more than 200 litres of water each year – so replace your dripping taps with new from our affordable wholesale plumbing supplies line.
  17. Thomas Crapper didn’t invent the toilet, but he was a plumber and supplied 30 toilets with cedarwood seats for Sandringham House, the home of Prince Edward in the 1880s (later to become Edward VII).
  18. The world’s most expensive toilet was designed for the International Space Station, costing $19 million US – don’t ask, because our wholesale plumbing supplies don’t include NASA toilets!
  19. The first underground sewer in Rome dates from 500 BC.
  20. World Toilet Day is on 19th November every year – great news for a toilet wholesaler!

For the latest wholesale plumbing supplies, contact us today.