Finding efficient toilets is not always an easy thing. Toilets have changed drastically over the years from chamber pots, to the toilets most of us are familiar with today. However, finding efficient toilets is easier to do in today’s society, although every time a new and improved toilet comes out, it seems as if another even more modern toilet is right behind it. The word toilet came to be used in English along with other French fashions. It originally referred to the French word “toile”, which meant “cloth,” and was draped over a lady or gentleman’s shoulders while their hair was being dressed.
In 1596, Sir John Harington designed a toilet that had a flush valve to let water out of the tank, and a wash-down design to empty the bowl. He installed one for his godmother Queen Elizabeth I at Richmond Palace, but she refused to use it because it made too much noise. The first American patent for a toilet, nicknamed the plunger closet, was granted in 1857. In 1907, Thomas MacAvity Stewart of Saint John, New Brunswick, patented the vortex-flushing toilet bowl, which created a self-cleansing effect.
Although pressure assisted toilets seem more expensive than gravity toilets, they do a better job removing waste from the bowl all while using less water. Finding efficient toilets was becoming a problem. Before the 1950s, toilets usually used seven or more gallons of water per flush. in the 1960s, finding efficient toilets were easier because they were designed to flush with only five and a half gallons of water. Finding efficient toilets in the 1980s proved to be possible because they were now only using three and a half gallons per flush. Today, new toilets use no more than one and a half gallons of water per flush. Finding efficient toilets is even easier today because they make a variety of toilets that have two levels of flushing depending on the amount of water you need to remove the waste in the bowl.