<P> In 1904, Crapper retired, passing the firm to his nephew George and his business partner Robert Marr Wharam . Crapper lived at 12 Thornsett Road, Anerley, for the last six years of his life and died on 27 January 1910 . He was buried in the nearby Elmers End Cemetery . </P> <P> In 1966 the company was sold by then owner Robert G. Wharam (son of Robert Marr Wharam) on his retirement, to their rivals John Bolding & Sons . Bolding went into liquidation in 1969 . The company fell out of use until it was acquired by Simon Kirby, a historian and collector of antique bathroom fittings, who relaunched the company in Stratford - upon - Avon, producing authentic reproductions of Crapper's original Victorian bathroom fittings . </P> <P> As the first man to set up public showrooms for displaying sanitary ware, he became known as an advocate of sanitary plumbing, popularising the notion of installation inside peoples homes . He also deserves fame for refining and developing improvements to existing plumbing and sanitary fittings . As a part of his business he maintained a foundry and metal shop which enabled him to try out new designs and develop more efficient plumbing solutions . Read more at http://biography.yourdictionary.com/articles/when-thomas-crapper-die.html#AEOIsdhX0CdcR2LZ.99 He won a patent as the original inventor for using a "floating ball cock" as a part of a water closet arrangement . He invented improvements on existing water closests, and he owned the patent for the siphonic flush toilet . He invented the manhole cover enabling easy maintenance access . As well as various improvements to plumbing fittings, not least improvements to the developing the plumbing trap (U-bend). While it's true that Alexander Cummings invented an S - shaped trap (the S - bend) in 1775, it had reliability problems . Once invented (despite its simplicity and reliability) widespread use of it in sewage systems was slow to catch on; coming, only when the Great Stink of the Thames in 1858, forced Parliament to pass laws in the 1860s for closed sewers to be installed . It would eventually be replaced by Crapper's improved bend trap in 1880 . The new U-bend was a significant improvement on the "S" as it could not jam, and unlike the S - bend, it did not have a tendency to dry out, and did not need an overflow . The BBC was to nominate the S - bend as one of the 50 Things That (have) Made the Modern Economy </P> <P> Crapper held nine patents, three of them for water closet improvements such as the floating ballcock, but none was for the flush toilet itself . Thomas Crapper's advertisements implied the siphonic flush was his invention; one having the text "Crapper's Valveless Water Waste Preventer (Patent #4,990) One movable part only", but patent 4990 (for a minor improvement to the water waste preventer) was not his, but that of Albert Giblin in 1898 . Crapper's nephew, George, did improve the siphon mechanism by which the water flow is started . A patent for this development was awarded in 1897 . </P>

Who is the guy who invented the toilet