Many people might have certain associations when they think of plumbers, and many of these associations might not be one-hundred percent accurate. In fact, it might be interesting to look at some little-known facts about plumbers and their trade. Test your plumbing IQ here: how many of the following items and tidbits did you already know?
The instrument that many people call a “plunger” is known in the plumbing world as a “plumbers helper.”
A journeyman plumber, which is an assistant plumber who’s learning the trade, makes on average only about forty-four dollars a week. (Of course, he or she will make a LOT more than that once training is completed.)
The rock star Ozzy Osbourne was once a plumber.
Albert Einstein famously remarked that if he had his life to live over again, he would have become a plumber.
One of the first people to mass-market the modern-day toilet was a British plumber named Thomas Crapper.
The word “plumber” comes from the Latin word plumbum, which means “lead.” In the Roman Empire, many pipes, tubs and roofs were made out of lead.
A plumber has to know how to read an architectural blueprint.
The slang word “john,” which means “toilet,” is a reference to Sir John Harington, who created an early prototype for the toilet in 1596.
Richard Nixon wanted to find out who was leaking classified information about the Vietnam War, so in 1971 he created a special investigative unit and called all of its members “plumbers.” He called them plumbers because their job was to fix his leaks!
For a time during the nineteenth century, the city of Boston, Massachusetts, used hollow logs for pipes instead of pipes made out of metal.
There is no uniform national tax code for plumbers. There isn’t a uniform national license application system for plumbers, either. Instead, these matters get decided by local authorities.
Plumbing was a recognized occupation in Ancient China, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Persia, among other ancient civilizations.