GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

Detailed explanation-1: -Sir John Harington (4 August 1561 – 20 November 1612), of Kelston, Somerset, England, but baptised in London, was an English courtier, author and translator popularly known as the inventor of the flush toilet.

Detailed explanation-2: -The first modern flushable toilet was described in 1596 by Sir John Harington, an English courtier and the godson of Queen Elizabeth I. Harington’s device called for a 2-foot-deep oval bowl waterproofed with pitch, resin and wax and fed by water from an upstairs cistern.

Detailed explanation-3: -He invented the lavatory! He was a godson of Queen Elizabeth I, but he had been banished from court for telling risqué stories, and exiled to Kelston near Bath. During his ‘exile’, 1584-91, he built himself a house, and devised and installed the first flushing lavatory, which he named Ajax.

Detailed explanation-4: -Sir John Harington’s father had first been married to the illegitimate daughter of King Henry VIII. But Harington was born to his father’s second wife. So he missed being Queen Elizabeth’s nephew, and Elizabeth assumed the role of Godmother to young John Harington.