Since these pages were converted from PDF, some of the content may appear garbled. To the best of our knowledge, the information contained herein is accurate. However, neither Binson's, or any of its subsidiaries assumes any liability whatsoever for the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein. This manufacturer information is for educational purposes only.


This is the html version of this file.















Page 1
Contact:
Ginny Long
Director of Public Affairs
Moen Incorporated
(800) 321-8809, Ext. 2019
March, 2003
Jennifer Allanson
Robert Falls & Co. Public Relations
(216) 696-0229
AN ANCIENT LUXURY BECOMES A MODERN MORNING NECESSITY
A Look at the Cascading Evolution of the Shower
North Olmsted, Ohio. . . Count yourself lucky for living in the modern world. If you’re
like most people, you begin every day by taking for granted something that was not
even available to some of the most wealthy and powerful people throughout history – a
shower.
Today, going without a shower for even a day is out of the question for most people and
to not shower for a week or more would be unthinkable. But most of us have ancestors
who probably shunned bathing to the greatest extent possible. Even the Romans, who
loved to bathe, took their baths in stagnant pools of dirty water that they shared with
hundreds of their fellow citizens. They had no concept of bacteria, of course.
In ancient times, the best a rich or royal person could do was to have a servant dump
cold water over them as they stood in a basin – hardly a relaxing experience by modern
standards.
Today, manufacturers spend millions finding ways to make water do magical things in
order to make showering a luxurious, invigorating and revitalizing experience.


Page 2
"The soothing massage of a specially engineered stream of hot water is what people
seek in their showers today," says David Lingafelter, Moen Incorporated's Vice
President of Product Marketing. "We spend a lot of time figuring out how to make water
create the sensation of a massage when designing shower fixtures,” Lingafelter said.
“Our Revolution™ showerhead actually spins each drop of water that it puts out and
then twirls the whole shower stream so that users feel enveloped in water. Making the
water droplets larger makes them feel warmer and the increased speed and movement
of each drop gives the sensation of higher flow and higher pressure.”
You don’t get that sort of feeling from your average ancient servant with a bucket.
But, at various times throughout history, ancient cultures have embraced the notion of
showering for cleansing. During excavation of the Egyptian City of Akhenaten at Tel-el-
Amarna, which dates back to 1350 B.C., a small bathroom was found. Lawrence
Wright's "Clean & Decent: The Fascinating History of the Bathroom and the Water-
Closet" reports that it was determined from the design of the basin, complete with
splashbacks, that it was a simple form of a shower. But, still, it is believed that the water
was most likely poured on the bather from servants holding vases.
Babylon had a series of aqueducts (the earliest ones on record) laboriously maintained
to provide the well-to-do with water for their bathrooms, according to "The History of
Plumbing - Babylon" onPlumbingSupply.com. While the common people were bathing
and washing clothes on the banks of canals or in cisterns, King Nebuchandnezzar (605-
562 B.C.) bathed in a shower room where, you guessed it, slaves poured water over
him as he washed with soap made of ashes and animal fat. The plumbing was
advanced enough that a drainpipe took away the wastewater, something modern
plumbers wouldn't accomplish until the 19th century.
In ancient Greece, citizens took outdoor showers by standing under a stream of water
coming from spouts found on the sides of large fountains built in the cities, according to


Page 3
Penny Colman's, "Toilets, Bathtubs, Sinks, and Sewers." Grecian vases with paintings
of people showering in this manner were found by archaeologists.
Unfortunately, the Western World’s advancements in showering stopped when people
began to think that bathing itself was not altogether necessary. Queen Isabella of
Spain, who funded the voyage of Christopher Columbus, was proud of the fact she had
taken only two showers in her lifetime, reported Colman. In fact, early Christians
equated bathing with vanity and avoided it in order to be more holy. Colman wrote that
St. Francis of Assisi listed dirtiness as one of the signs of a holy person, St. Catherine of
Siena avoided washing, and St. Agnes, who died at the age of 13, had never taken a
bath.
Eventually, and thankfully, cleanliness began to come into vogue again, but only long
after a third of Europe had succumbed to the Plague. In 1598, Wright reports, bathing
rooms were added to Windsor Castle in London. It was here that Queen Elizabeth took
a bath once a month whether she needed to or not.
As recently as 1812, bathing was looked upon as frivolous. When the Lord Mayor of
London requested a simple shower bath in the mansion house, he was turned down by
the Common Council on the grounds that no one had ever wanted one before. It would
take 20 more years before one would be installed.
Showers, as we know them today without the pouring servants, came into use in the
late 18th century, according to Rebecca Weaver and Rodney Dale's, "Machines in the
Home." The first patent for a shower was granted in 1767 and owned by William
Feetham. The earliest showers usually had a hand pump and became popular because
they required a smaller water supply.
Frank Muir's "An Irreverent and Almost Complete Social History of the Bathroom,"
reports that showers had other advantages over the commonplace bathtubs. They
were smaller, taking up less room in already tight areas, and they were cheaper to


Page 4
install. With showers, servants had a wider area to clean, but they also had less
wastewater to carry away.
But, by far, the biggest drawback of the shower was the cold water shock that
accompanied pulling the cord on the overhead tank. That reason alone kept many
people in baths until the advent of piped hot water. They reasoned it was easier to
slowly drop into a tub of cold water than to pull the cord and let it rain down upon them.
This shower Renaissance was brought on, in great part, by doctors prescribing water
cures to their patients. The water was applied in a number of ways, including the Rain
Bath - simply a shower where the patient would walk in and the doctor would pull the
cord on the nozzle to shower the patient. Wright quotes:
"It is no rare thing to see a subject who at this first shower betrays actual terror,
shouts, struggles, runs away, experiences frightening suffocation and palpitation;
and it is not rare to hear him say, after a moment, 'so that's all it is.'"
Shortly thereafter, showers started becoming commonplace. The plumbing industry
responded with what some consider the first designer shower, the English Regency Shower.
According to "The Stand-Up Bath" ontheplumber.com,this 12-foot-high luxury shower was
made of metal painted to look like bamboo. At its base was a basin with a drain and above
it was a tank. A hand pump forced water from the basin into the tank and then over the
bather's head. The main drawback of this design was that the same water re-circulated
over the bather.
In the 1830s, another unique showering device hit the market, the American Virginia
Stool Shower. This all-wood device resembled a quality piano stool with a rotating seat.
Placed in the bathtub, the Shower Stool had a hand-operated lever that pumped water
from the tub and over the bather's head and back. A scrub brush, attached to a vertical
pipe, could be worked up and down the user's body with the accompanying foot pedal.


Page 5
Advances in plumbing in the mid-1800s led to advancements in showering capabilities.
It was about this time that plumbers began making freestanding showers with both hot
and cold water, according totheplumber.com.
In 1879, Warren Wasson and Charles Harris, of Carson City, Nev., patented a shower
that required the bather to maintain a constant treading motion with the feet to operate a
pump which recirculated water from the tub, Weaver and Dale wrote.
They go on to report on William Luther's 1891 shower patent in which a pump
compressed air in a reservoir to force water up to a showerhead. 1882 saw the coming
of Ewart's Improved Spray Bath with no fewer than 10 controls that manipulated various
body sprays.
In 1889, J. L. Mott Iron Works followed suit, offering a unit that could shower the bather
from every angle. The company'scatalog touted that the shower would provide for the
bather "needle, shower, descending douche, liver spray and bidet" functions. Other
manufacturers got in on the act and provided a variety of showering options like multiple
heads, waterfall spouts and body sprays.
"The desires of the showering public really haven't changed much when you compare
these antique showers with shower suites available today. We’ve just gotten better at
delivering what the consumer wants," Lingafelter says.
There are still waterfall spouts, rain-like showerheads and body sprays. For example,
Moen's Vertical Spa is available with multiple body sprays to hit every part of the body.
The biggest difference between showers of the 19th and 21st centuries is that today,
the pipes are behind the walls and the hot water is a little more reliable. For the hot
water, we can thank Edwin Ruud, founder of the Ruud Manufacturing Company, who in
1898 invented the automatic storage water heater. No longer would it be necessary to
begin boiling water well in advance of a bath, or stand under the shower awaiting the
shock of frigid water.


Page 6
In fact, today's showering technology has even been able to remove the dreaded shock
that accompanies the untimely flushing of a toilet or running of the kitchen faucet when
another household member is in the shower. Pressure-balancing thermostatic valves
like Moen's ExactTemp® are able to maintain a steady
flow-rate and constant water temperature, even if someone decides to start the
dishwasher or do a load of laundry while you're washing away the cares of the day.
Shortly after the shower renaissance in the late 19th century, showers moved back to
being thought of as strictly utilitarian devices and the fancy designs disappeared until
the 1980s when manufacturers began responding to the desires of their customers for
more versatility in the shower.
"Today, manufacturers are continually coming up with advances in showering
technology," Lingafelter says. "Manufacturers are constantly working on ways to deliver
the optimal shower to keep the showering public clean as well as happy."
Or, you could just get yourself a servant and a bucket!
###


EDITORS NOTE:Moen Incorporated is one of the world's largest producers of residential and
commercial plumbing products. Moen is the #1 brand of faucets in North America. The company
manufactures a complete line of single and two-handle faucets in a wide assortment of styles and
finishes. It is also a leading producer of residential and commercial sinks, a variety of shower
accessories, and bathroom accessories (sold under the brands Moen, Cleveland Faucet Group,
and Creative Specialties International).
Moen Incorporated is an operating company of Fortune Brands, Inc. (NYSE: FO,
www.fortunebrands.com), the consumer products company.
02-40