Gross Old Plumbing That No One Misses

Modern plumbing can be pretty gross. For example, flushing the toilet can spray bacteria and aerosolized waste up to 15 feet. However, that's nothing compared to old school plumbing. Here are three plumbing methods that everyone is glad don't exist anymore.

Chamber Pots 

Some of the first plumbing services, chamber pots, were used as early as the 6th century BC. They were essentially containers that stored human waste until emptied. Often, people tried to hide them in other pieces of furniture. A popular option was to stash them in cabinets, called commodes. Another common storage place was under the bed. When the chamber pots were full, they were emptied into privies or cesspits beneath the house until sewage collectors called night soil men emptied the tanks. Not every home had a cesspit, however. As a result, many people simply emptied their chamber pots onto the street. Pedestrians, beware!

River Sewers

As plumbing services evolved ever so slightly, sewer systems were developed to move waste away from cities and their inhabitants. In medieval Europe, sewers were built by paving over natural rivers, and building gutters or drains to direct wastewater from the street into the rivers. Perhaps the most famous European river-turned-sewer is the River Fleet, which runs beneath Fleet Street in London. While in Anglo-Saxon times the river was known for its healing qualities, London's current Environment Agency doubts that the river will ever be clean enough to be uncovered. Thankfully, modern sewers now involve water treatment plants, which significantly decrease pollution and waterborne disease.

Questionable Pipes

While most of today's plumbing pipes are made of plastic, copper, or other non-toxic materials, this was not always the case. Lead has been widely used for piping since the days of the Roman Empire—although most cases of Roman lead poisoning were actually due to cooking with lead utensils or using lead as a wine preservative. Wood was also used to build pipes in London during the 16th and 17th centuries. These pipes were joined together with hot animal fat. Luckily for public health and animal welfare, neither of these materials is standard anymore.

Rusty's Inc.'s plumbing services are here to repair and replace outdated plumbing—though hopefully nothing quite this outdated! To learn more about us, call (508) 775-1303 or fill out the contact form.