50 free Bathroom trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
41 free bathroom trivia questions with answers. The bathroom is the one room everybody uses and nobody quizzes on, so here are forty-one questions about it. They cover who really invented the flush toilet (not Thomas Crapper), the Elizabethan courtier who built the first one, the S-trap, the pay toilets at the Great Exhibition, and why we 'spend a penny'. There is toilet paper history from 6th-century China to 'splinter-free' rolls, the pony that named the bidet, Japan's Washlet, the first mechanical shower and the confectioner who invented the plunger. Soap, toothbrushes, chamber pots, outhouses, Roman bath complexes, the rubber duck's Toy Hall of Fame induction, Archimedes in his tub and Psycho's shower scene all get a turn. It is a good set for a pub quiz round, a plumbing team, or anyone who reads in there. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the topics, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Elizabethan courtier described England's first flushing toilet, the Ajax, in a 1596 book?
Sir John Harington
He was one of Elizabeth I's 102 godchildren, and the book was also a coded attack on the monarchy.
Q 02The S-trap, the bend that keeps sewer gas out of a toilet, was invented in 1775 by which Scottish mechanic?
Alexander Cumming
He was a watchmaker by trade and held the first patent for a flush toilet design.
Q 03Contrary to popular legend, which Victorian plumber did NOT invent the flush toilet?
Thomas Crapper
He did hold nine patents, including the floating ballcock, and his company's manhole covers in Westminster Abbey are a minor tourist attraction.
Q 04The Victorian plumber whose company name became slang held how many patents?
Nine
Three were for water closet improvements, and his firm received several royal warrants.
Q 05George Jennings installed the first public pay toilets at which 1851 event?
The Great Exhibition
His 'Monkey Closets' in the Crystal Palace caused great excitement and earned over £1,000 a year.
Q 06The euphemism 'to spend a penny' comes from what?
Coin-operated toilet door locks
John Nevil Maskelyne, better known as a stage magician, invented the penny lock.
Q 07Which Roman emperor is believed to have begun charging citizens to use public toilets?
Vespasian
Public urinals in France and Italy are still nicknamed after him.
Q 08Very early toilets that used flowing water have been found at Skara Brae, a Neolithic village where?
Orkney, Scotland
The site was occupied from about 3100 BC to 2500 BC.
Q 09Which ancient culture is credited with the world's first known urban sanitation systems?
The Indus Valley Civilisation
Its cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa had drains and bathrooms more than 4,000 years ago.
Q 10In which country was paper first recorded as being used for personal hygiene, in the 6th century AD?
China
Purpose-made toilet paper was being mass-produced there by the 14th century.
Q 11Who is credited with inventing modern commercial toilet paper in the US, first sold in 1857?
Joseph Gayetty
His 'Medicated Paper' came as flat sheets watermarked with his name and was billed as 'the greatest necessity of the age'.
Q 12Which firm popularised toilet rolls when it began marketing them in 1890?
Scott
Until 2004 it was one of the last US makers still selling rolls in beige, blue and pink.
Q 13As late as the 1930s, the Northern Tissue company advertised its toilet paper with what selling point?
Splinter free
Which tells you what the competition was like.
Q 21The plumbing plunger was invented in 1874 by John Hawley, a New Yorker in what trade?
Confectioner
His patent called it a 'vent-clearer' and it was marketed as a 'force cup'.
Q 22Where was the earliest surviving personal-sized bathtub, a 1.5-metre pottery tub, found?
The Isle of Crete
Modern tubs are made of acrylic, enamelled steel or cast iron, or fibreglass-reinforced polyester.
Q 23Which US president's administration broke up the price-fixing 'porcelain trust' of toilet makers in 1912?
William Howard Taft
The same president is the subject of a persistent tale about getting stuck in the White House bathtub.
Q 14Before toilet paper was widely available, rural Americans commonly used what in the outhouse?
Mail-order catalogs
Old newspapers and the Montgomery Ward catalog served the same purpose.
Q 15The crescent moon cut into the door of American outhouses was popularised by whom?
Cartoonists
Its supposed historical basis is doubtful; the symbol owes more to comic strips than to carpenters.
Q 16The word 'bidet' is French for what?
Pony
In Old French 'bider' meant to trot, and the name refers to the straddling posture.
Q 17Combination toilet-bidets were found in roughly what share of Japanese households as of 2015?
About 76%
They are also popular in South Korea and often come with seat warmers and dryers.
Q 18Which Japanese company makes the Washlet, the toilet seat with a built-in bidet wand?
Toto
Founded in 1917 as Oriental Pottery Company, it developed the first Washlet between 1978 and 1980.
Q 19The first known mechanical shower, worked by a hand pump, was patented in England in 1767 by a maker of what?
Stoves
William Feetham of Ludgate Hill got there first; the ancient Greeks had showers long before, but they broke down with Rome.
Q 20In which 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film does the most famous shower scene in cinema appear?
Psycho
Saul Bass storyboarded it, and in the source novel Marion is decapitated rather than stabbed.
Q 24Which ancient Greek reportedly shouted 'Eureka!' after noticing the water rise in his bath?
Archimedes
He is said to have run naked through the streets of Syracuse to share the discovery.
Q 25In a Roman bath complex, what was the caldarium?
The hot room
The tepidarium was warm and the frigidarium cold; the caldarium sat directly over the furnace.
Q 26The Farnese Bull and the Farnese Hercules were recovered from which Roman bathing complex?
Baths of Caracalla
Great imperial bath complexes contained libraries as well as pools and were social hubs.
Q 27The earliest evidence of a cleansing fat-and-alkali mixture, around 2800 BC, comes from which ancient civilisation?
Babylon
A recipe for a soap-like substance was written on a Sumerian clay tablet around 2500 BC.
Q 28Olive-oil-only bars, prized for mildness, are known by which two names?
Castile or Marseille soap
It is prized for its mildness; both names come from historic soap-making centres.
Q 29William Addis is believed to have made the first mass-produced toothbrush in 1780 where?
Britain
He had the idea in prison after deciding a rag with soot and salt was not getting the job done.
Q 30The first tooth-cleaning brush with nylon bristles went on sale in which year?
1938
DuPont replaced boar bristles with the new synthetic fibre; the earliest bristle brushes were used in Tang dynasty China.