Young Brunette Girl With A Fringe Posing In The Bathtub

The Roman Empire is most widely known as the early champions of bathing. Around 500 BC Roman citizens were encouraged to bathe daily in one of the many public baths. Private bathing rooms were far more ornate and typically would resemble shallow swimming pools that encompassed the entire room. The Romans used marble for the tubs, lead and bronze for pipes, and created a complex sewage system for sanitation purposes. The Roman empire set the early bar for modern personal hygiene.
Contrary to popular belief, bathing and sanitation were not a lost practice with the collapse of the Roman Empire. Soapmaking first became an established trade during the Early Middle Ages. Also, contrary to myth, chamberpots were not disposed of out the window and into streets in the Middle Ages - this was instead a Roman practice. Bathing in fact did not fall out of fashion until shortly after the Renaissance, replaced with the heavy use of sweat-bathing and perfume, as it was thought that water could carry disease into the body through the skin. Modern sanitation was not widely adopted until the 19th and 20th centuries.
The bathtub's modern spouse, the toilet, had problems gaining acceptance. Sir John Harington invented the first flushing toilet for himself and for his godmother, Queen Elizabeth I, in 1596. When Harington published a book describing his invention, he was roundly chided by peers, embarrassing him to the point of retirement from plumbing. His two toilets were the only ones he ever produced. The next water closet would not be seen for 200 years when it was introduced by Alexander Cummings in 1775. This event would mark the very beginnings of the modern bathroom.
It was now time for the piping to catch up with the fixtures. Until the 19th century, most water pipes in the US were made from hollow trees. In the early 19th century, cast-iron production began reducing American reliance on England for this material. Finally, in 1848, The National Public Health Act was passed in the US, creating a plumbing code for the first time.