The people's history of plumbing

摘要

If you've been in the trades for any length of time, you have been made aware, sometimes acutely aware, that plumbers are not held in as high esteem as doctors, bank managers, investment counselors, lawyers or other professionals. The average person today is unaware of the fact that our trade is directly responsible for saving civilization; not once, but many times in the last 8,000 years. In fact, as author W. Hodding Carter so pointedly noted in his 2006 book "Flushed: How Plumbing Saved Civilization": "The unsung hero of human history was, of course, the Brain of Drains, the Hub of Tubs, the Power of Showers, the Brewer of Sewers ... the humble plumber." Further, should we experience a global nuclear holocaust, Carter said plumbers will be civilization's "knight in droopy jeans."