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Fun Facts About Plumbing

When you think of plumbing, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?  Oh great, a clogged sink or toilet. That’s no fun! And that’s precisely the point. Because for all the aggravation your plumbing can cause, it does have its lighter side, as you’re about to see.

1. The word “plumber” dates back to the Roman Empire.  In Rome, pipes where originally made from lead, which is “plumbum” in Latin.  People who worked with lead were called Plumbarius, which was shortened over time to the word we use today.
2. The world’s most famous plumbers are probably Mario and Luigi of the Nintendo series Super Mario Brothers.
3. Ozzy Osbourne, a famous and controversial rock star, was a plumber’s apprentice before he got into the music industry.
4. In Japan, some urinals have voice-activated flushing mechanisms.  The urinals respond to several commands, including “fire.”
5. In 1956 Sir John Harington was credited with inventing the first flushable toilet, hence the American nickname for it, “the John.”
6. If a drip from your faucet fills an 8-ounce glass in 15 minutes, it will waste 180 gallons per month and 2,160 gallons per year.
7. A low flush toilet can save you up to 18,000 gallons of water per year.
8. Since 1963, more than 28 billion feet or about 5.3 million miles of copper plumbing tube has been installed in U.S. buildings. That’s equivalent to a coil wrapping around the Earth more than 200 times. The current installation rate now exceeds a billion feet per year.
9. Archeologists have recovered a portion of a water plumbing system from the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt. The evidence of indoor plumbing in palaces dates back to 2500 B.C.E.
10. The term “plumbers” was a popular name given to the covert White House Special Investigations Unit established during the presidency of Richard Nixon in response to the leaked “Pentagon Papers” documents. Their job was to plug intelligence leaks in the U.S. Government relating to the Vietnam War; hence the term “plumbers.”

Could you stand a little plumbing assistance at your house? If so, you’ve come to exactly the right place: Messmer Mechanical. From routine maintenance to plumbing repair and new installations, we do it all, and always with your satisfaction guaranteed.