1. Contrary to the popular belief that Sir Thomas Crapper actually invented the toilet, he was in fact a plumber and had his name emblazoned on the side of toilets across London. Sir Crapper obtained his claim to fame by buying the patent rights to the ‘Silent Valveless Water Waste Preventer,’ invented by Albert Giblin. The technology is commonly known today as the “flush toilet.”

Sir Thomas Crapper

2. Giblin may have sold the patent rights; however, years before this the modern flush toilet was invented by Englishman Sir John Harington (1561 – 1612). It is from his name that the American slang word for toilet, the “John,” has derived.
3. There are two theories as to the origin of the word “sewer:”
1. From Old English meaning “seaward”.
2. From the French word essouier, meaning "to drain."
4. Plumbing comes from the Latin word for lead which is plumbum.
5. Victorian pipes now comprise less than 1% of the total sewerage network in London.
6. The earliest enclosed sewers uncovered by archaeologists were in the carefully planned cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation (circa 3300–1700BC). The region, known as the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river valleys, is now Pakistan and parts of western India.

Map of the area covered by the Indus Valley Civilisation

7. The Cloaca Maxima, or “Great Sewer,” in ancient Rome was considered a marvel of engineering.  It disgorged into the Tiber, draining local marshes and carrying sewage from one of the world’s most populous cities. It was constructed in 600 BC under the orders of the fifth king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus.

Victorian sewer in London as seen today

Map of Rome during the Roman Empire

8. The only survivors from the Warsaw Ghetto made their final escape through city sewers during the Second World War.
9. On February 10, 1935, the New York Times reported an alligator had been found in a sewer beneath East 123rd Street in the Bronx. Teenage boys shoveling snow down an open manhole spotted the animal, lassoed it, and then promptly beat it to death with their shovels.
10. In 1971, archaeologist Patrick Ottaway discovered Roman sewers beneath the cobbled streets of York, England -- sewers which still contained Roman faeces!
11. In June 2007, in a small village in County Durham, England, two ladies’ undergarments were flushed down the toilet and caused a blockage in the pipe. This blockage combined with heavy rain caused the pipe to burst, which consequently damaged a 2m section of the sewer and a 10m section of road! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/6766657.stm