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You are here: Home / Inventions / Who Invented the Bathtub and When Was the First Modern Bathtub Invented?

Who Invented the Bathtub and When Was the First Modern Bathtub Invented?

April 15, 2020 by Karen Hill

For eons people have used stone, brick, or wooden tubs to bathe in, in or around the home.

But two men significantly affected the bathtub as we know it today.

John Kohler, a foundry owner in Wisconsin in the late 1800s, developed an enameled iron watering trough for animals.

When indoor plumbing became popular, he attached his trough to four cast-iron feet and began selling it as a bathtub for the house in 1883.

These bathtubs were sold by the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company and Kohler Company.

A few years later David Buick, the very same man who began the car company, became the father of the modem bathtub.

Before he delved into the world of automobiles, he manufactured plumbing fixtures in Detroit.

He patented a method of affixing porcelain to an iron surface, the same method used for bathtubs today.

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Filed Under: Inventions

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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