The History of Plumbing Shelf

Before American Standard, there was the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company. It was founded in 1875, and merged with several other small plumbing manufacturers in 1899 to form the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company. Standard Sanitary pioneered many of the plumbing product improvements introduced in the early part of this century including the one-piece toilet, built-in tubs, combination faucets (which mix hot and cold water to deliver tempered water) and tarnish-proof, corrosion-proof chrome finishes for brass fittings. By 1929, Standard had become the world's largest producer of bathroom fixtures. That same year, the Standard Sanitary Corporation merged with American Radiator Company to form the American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Corporation. The corporation adopted the name "American Standard" in 1967.

As any American who has traveled abroad knows, the American home contains more, and more elaborate, plumbing than any other in the world. Indeed, Americans are renowned for their obsession with cleanliness. Although plumbing has occupied a central position in American life since the mid-nineteenth century, little scholarly attention has been paid to its history. Now, in All the Modern Conveniences, Maureen Ogle presents a fascinating study that explores the development of household plumbing in nineteenth-century America.
Until 1840, indoor plumbing could be found only in mansions and first-class hotels. Then, in the decade before midcentury, Americans representing a wider range of economic circumstances began to install household plumbing with increasing eagerness. Ogle draws on a wide assortment of contemporary sources--sanitation reports, builders' manuals, fixture catalogues, patent applications, and popular scientific tracts--to show how the demand for plumbing was prompted more by an emerging middle-class culture of convenience, reform, and domestic life than by fears about poor hygiene and inadequate sanitation. She also examines advancements in water-supply and waste-management technology, the architectural considerations these amenities entailed, and the scientific approach to sanitation that began to emerge by century's end. --Mark H. Rose, Florida Atlantic University

This book is a history of the Paris sewer system, replete with the symbolism entailed by the sewer through the ages. It is divided into 3 parts: the sewers and their development, sewermen, and the sewermen's union. Reid traces the development of the sewer system from the times when waste collected in open pools, through the draining of the pools into the Seine and the eventual laws requiring private buildings to connect to the sewers. From almost the very beginning, the sewers needed workers to clear the sediment away and keep the sewage flowing, and Reid explains how the work of the sewermen, as the laborers in the sewer are called, changed over the course of time. Reid also discusses the sewermen's union and the efforts they made not only to assure the security and well-being of the workers, but also to take care of the workers' family members. The book is illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs and drawings. Sources are referenced through extensive end notes. There is also an index. Reviewer: Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA).