Born in the U.S.A. (Bruce Springsteen)

History's Best Selling Tech of the 1590s

1. Flushing Toilet (Ajax)

   Released in 1596 by Sir John Harington

   In 1596, Sir John Harington published 'A New Discourse of a Stale Subject, Called the Metamorphosis of Ajax,' describing the forerunner to the modern flush toilet. Harington, a godson of Queen Elizabeth I, had devised and installed the first working prototype of a flushing lavatory in Kelston during his exile between 1584 and 1591. The invention, which he proudly named 'Ajax' (a pun on 'a jakes', the slang term for a privy), represented a revolutionary leap in sanitation technology and plumbing.