Jonathan Waggott, an expert in sanitary infection control issues, Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health, and member of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers who runs his own consultancy, takes a look at the many potential ways to clean and disinfect showers in the healthcare environment, and, drawing on study evidence, considers the efficacy of each.
The very first showers were neither indoor structures nor man-made, but were common natural formations – waterfalls. The falling water rinsed the bathers completely clean, and was more efficient than bathing in a traditional basin, which required manual transport of both fresh and waste water. Ancient people began to reproduce these natural phenomena by pouring jugs of water, often very cold, over themselves after washing.
There has also been evidence of early upper class Egyptian and Mesopotamians having indoor shower rooms, where servants would bathe them in the privacy of their own homes. However, these were rudimentary by modern standards, having rudimentary drainage systems, and water was carried, not pumped, into the room. The ancient Greeks were the first people to have real showers. Their aqueducts and sewage systems made of lead pipes allowed water to be pumped both into and out of the large communal shower rooms used by elites and common citizens alike. These rooms have been discovered at the site of the city of Pergamum, and can also be found represented in images and paintings on pottery of the era.
First shower patented by a stove maker
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