Thomas Crapper was a plumber who invented the flushing toilet.

False. Thomas Crapper was a prominent Victorian plumber and marketer, but the flushing toilet existed long before him. Sir John Harington described a flush toilet in 1596; Alexander Cumming patented the S-trap in 1775, and Joseph Bramah improved it in 1778. Crapper popularized high-quality sanitaryware, held several plumbing patents, and sold fixtures using Albert Giblin’s ballcock valve, but he was not the inventor of the flush toilet. Why the myth? During WWI, soldiers saw “Thomas Crapper & Co.” on British lavatories and his memorable name stuck, spreading the legend (and the word “crap” is older). Memory tip: Think “Sir John before Crapper”—Harington’s design came centuries earlier, while Crapper helped make modern bathrooms common.