Bathtub

From ArticleWorld

A bathtub is a plumbing fixture used in bathing. When bathing, a person usually removes all clothing and lies down to bathe. Soap, bathing salts, bubble and other additives may be used to enhance the experience, or provide healthful benefits.

History

Early plumbing systems go back as far as approximately 3300 B.C.. Copper water pipes have been found beneath a palace, in the Indus River Valley, in India. Evidence of the first personal bath tub was found on the Isle of Crete. A five foot long pedestal tub was found, built from hardened pottery. This tub is the likely forefather to the classic 19th century clawfoot tub. In 1883, Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company and Kohler Company began producing cast iron tubs. Not the ornate tubs most associated with theclawfoot. the early Kohler tub was advertised as a ‘’horse trough/hog scalder, when furnished with four legs will serve as a bathtub’’. At that time, everyone knew what a hog scalder or horse trough was, however many people had never bathed in a tub. The tubs caught on more because of the sanitary, and easy to clean, surface than from any desire to smell nice for the neighbors. Until recently, most bathtubs were rectangular in shape. With the advent of acrylic thermoformed baths, more and more shapes are now available. Bathtubs are often white in color, although many other colors can be found. Modern bathtubs are equipped with an overflow, and may or may not have taps mounted on them. They may be built-in to the wall, or be free standing units, or are sometimes sunken into the floor.

The 1917 bathtub hoax

A famous practical joke, the 1917 bathtub hoax was a fictitious history of the bathtub, written by American journalist H. L. Mencken. On December 28, 1917, an article named ‘’A Neglected Anniversary’’ was published in the ‘’New York Evening Mail’’. It was entirely fictional, giving incorrect dates for the introduction of the bathtub to the United States and England. It cited that the bathtub had been discussed, and opposed, until the current president, Millard Fillmore, had one installed in the White house. Parts of this publication are still quoted to this day as fact..