Q 01/05

Which Elizabethan courtier described England's first flushing toilet, the 'Ajax', in a 1596 book?

A) Sir John Harington

B) Sir Walter Raleigh

C) Sir Francis Bacon

D) Sir Philip Sidney

Answer · why

A) Sir John Harington

The name punned on a slang word for a privy; the book's political jokes got the Queen's godson banished from court.

Q 02/05

Harington's toilet book, The Metamorphosis of Ajax, angered which monarch, his godmother?

A) Mary I

B) Elizabeth I

C) Henry VIII

D) James I

Answer · why

B) Elizabeth I

He was one of her 102 godchildren; she had earlier ordered him to translate all of Orlando Furioso as punishment for racy verses.

Q 03/05

Which Scottish watchmaker invented the S-trap in 1775, still used to keep sewer gas out of bathrooms?

A) Thomas Twyford

B) James Watt

C) Alexander Cumming

D) Joseph Bramah

Answer · why

C) Alexander Cumming

The bend holds a plug of water that seals the pipe; Bramah began his career installing closets built to Cumming's design.

Q 04/05

Which Victorian plumber, contrary to legend, did NOT invent the flush toilet, though he held nine patents?

A) Crapper

B) Jennings

C) Twyford

D) Wedgwood

Answer · why

A) Crapper

A tongue-in-cheek 1969 biography by satirist Wallace Reyburn inflated his fame; his manhole covers in Westminster Abbey are a minor tourist draw.

Q 05/05

Which royal residence gave Thomas Crapper his first royal warrant after he supplied thirty lavatories?

A) Sandringham House

B) Osborne House

C) Windsor Castle

D) Balmoral Castle

Answer · why

A) Sandringham House

The future Edward VII bought the Norfolk estate in the 1880s; Crapper's firm later got warrants from him as king and from George V.