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Evolution Of The Shower:
The Everyday Tale Of Plumbing, Heating And Power
Part 1
In today’s world a shower is something that is very much taken for granted, most people shower daily, at least once. The Greeks were the first to use the concept of a shower, fortuitously the ancient Romans did not have any concept of the damage that bacteria could do, as they bathed in stagnant pools of water, with hundreds of other sweaty people in it. The concept of a luxurious shower was a servant chucking a bowl of water over you, often cold. Our modern concept of an invigorating hot shower, with sweet smelling gels is a much more revitalising experience. Jets of water are designed to feel like a massage
During excavation of the Egyptian city of Akhenaten at Tel-el-Amarna, which dates back to 1350 B.C., a small bathroom private bathroom was was excavated. In Wright’s "Clean and Decent, The Fascinating History of the Bathroom and the Water-Closet" he reports that it was a basic shower fitted with splash backs. Although a little advanced from the servant and the bucket idea, the water was poured from vases onto the bather it did not get rid of the need for servants, though in practise they were more likely to have been slaves.
The ancient city of Babylon had the earliest aqueducts, laboriously to provide the wealthy with water for their bathrooms. King Nebuchadnezzar (605 - 562 B.C.) bathed in a shower room where, slaves poured water over him as he washed with a soap made of ashes and animal fat. Very different from the hoi polloi bathing in water channels, but still an improvement on the servant and bucket. Plumbing methods must have then entered the “dark ages” which was then to last until the middle of the nineteenth Century. Babylon had drainpipes for the wastewater a feat not achieved in Europe for another two and a half thousand years, which means the dark ages were the age of the unclean as well.
Grecian urns have been excavated, depicting the ancient Greek citizens bathing communally from spouts found on the sides of large fountains in the cities. The modern enlightened Europeans were definitely less inclined to get wet. Queen Isabella of Spain, the mother of Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry the eighth, funded the voyage of Christopher Columbus, in 1492. Reputedly, she complained bitterly about both of the showers she endured during her lifetime.
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