Flushed: How the Plumber Saved Civilization. This item is unavailable.Flushed: How the Plumber Saved Civilization

An anecdotal history of plumbing from the Harappan of 3000 B.C. to the modern world is a tribute to such engineering achievements as the lead pipes of the Roman empire, the sewers of London, and Japanese toilets. By the author of Stolen Water. 20,000 first printing.

"Hodding Carter has enough charm to fill a toilet tank, and I don't mean the new 1.6-gallon low-flush. No one else could make me laugh heartily while reading about the miraculous lead pipes of ancient Bath (which Hodding tries to replicate in his yard and nearly destroys his marriage and many of his brain cells). Thanks to Hodding, I know the most amazing things: medieval moats were cesspits, the original bio-warfare! Roman latrines were set up for conversation! The Great Stink of 1858 was conquered by an engineer whom London then thanked by naming a sludge barge after him! Got to love it all."-- Mary Roach, author of "Stiff" and "Spook" If you're going down the drain, you need an expert guide, a life-plumber, if you will. Reader, Hodding Carter is your man. He's studied toilets, sloshed through metropolitan sewers around the world, and built his own pipes based on ancient Roman techniques. Carter is unfailingly good company throughout this genuinely underground history. And unlike a real plumber, you can get him when you need him -- right here, right now.-- Will Blythe, author of "To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever"