Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper [Paperback]

Wallace Reyburn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1998

The biography of one of the great unsung engineers of the Victorian era. Thomas Crapper was the man who revolutionized the nation's water closets through his invention of Crapper's Valveless Water Waste Preventer in 1872, the forerunner of the modern cistern system.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Wallace Macdonald Reyburn OBE was born in New Zealand on the third of July, 1913. During the Hitler war he worked as a reporter for a Canadian newspaper. He was nearly killed during the Dieppe raid and was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his part in the battle and subsequent reportage. His book about that event, Rehearsal for Invasion, was a best-seller, as were some of his other works which covered such unrelated subjects as rugby football, lavatories, David Frost and brassieres. This last, entitled Bust Up - The Uplifting Tale of Otto Titzling and the Development of the Bra caused considerable confusion, especially in America and Canada. Flushed with Pride had been a great success and, as he could not think of any other famous inventor possessed of an amusingly-appropriate surname, he was inspired to create one. The story of Otto Titzling was clearly fictitious; unfortunately it was published in the same format as Flushed With Pride and contained similar illustrations and prose. This caused many American readers to assume that the biography of Mr. Crapper was also a joke which later led to extended correspondences in the letters pages of several publications. Thomas Crapper was dismissed as a hoax in various North American books and dictionaries of the early 1970s, but thankfully this mistake is rarely made to-day. Wallace Reyburn was very pleased when he learned that Thomas Crapper & Co. Ltd. had survived. When he died at the age of 87 in 2001 his passing was justly marked by extensive and illustrated obituaries in, amongst others, The Times and the Daily Telegraph --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Trafalgar Square Publishing (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857028600
• ISBN-13: 978-1857028607
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,348,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Captivating anecdotal stories, December 23, 1999

By 

Wingsinger (Syracuse, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper (Paperback)

An interesting look at the history of not only how the modern flush toilet was developed, but how modern septic systems evolved from the nightmarish waste systems of the past. Anecdotal stories give a captivating closeup perspective. The author tells the story in a mature and proper way befitting England's premier Royal Plumber.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun, but not true!, April 21, 2005

By 

Stavros Macrakis (Cambridge, MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper (Paperback)

This is a fun book, but it is not history. Do a Web search for "crapper" at snopes.com or in the wikipedia for discussion.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute must read!, March 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper (Paperback)

We use it every day, several times a day -- the humble flush toilet keeps our homes clean, safe, and odor-free. This amusing little book has the wondrous history of this most wonderful and humble of household objects. You'll never look at your toilet in the same way again.