Eugene's Lair posted:
[BTW: Wiki disagrees with Stephen as to the Chinese being the first to invent it, with the ancient Orcadians going back over 5000 years!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...flush_toilet_systems ]
I don't know what answer will be acceptable Eugene. Sir John Harington was the first to invent a flushing loo but never patented it. Alexander Cumming patented the flushing loo a couple of hundred years later...it's a complicated question indeed.