Ep 179: The Sloan Flushometer
The Sloan Flushometer:
Instead of covering America’s Best Restroom (which Cintas always drags their feet on announcing), we’re going to talk about a bathroom company that actually changed history: Sloan.
Yep, the Sloan Flushometer. You’ve used one. You probably cursed one for being too aggressive and splashing your pants. And you’ve definitely thanked one in an airport when you realized there was no tank to jiggle—just a shiny chrome handle ready to blast your troubles away.
Chicago: From Bog to Flush
Post–Civil War Chicago was… swampy. Imagine a prairie bog but with 200,000 people dumping their waste into it. Cholera outbreaks? Check. Mosquito-borne nastiness? Double check. If you were a Minecraft kid back then, your biome was set permanently to “disease swamp.”
The city literally raised itself up—like jacked up buildings and shoved stone underneath—to fix the plumbing. And by the time young William Elvis Sloan (a.k.a. “Little Billy”—not his real nickname, just mine) was growing up, Chicago was exploding in population. From 240,000 people to over a million in 30 years. That’s a lot of new butts needing places to poop.
Enter William Sloan and the Flushometer
In 1906, William Sloan invented the flushometer. Instead of relying on a tank and gravity like a home toilet, his contraption used building water pressure to blast the bowl clean. Think of it as the espresso shot of flushing: quick, powerful, no waiting around for the tank to refill.
Sounds like a winner, right? Yeah, well—Sloan sold exactly one in the first year. And let’s be honest, it was probably to his mom. Moms are the unsung heroes of “my kid made this thing” sales. If you’ve ever bought 12 cups of watery lemonade for $10, you get it.
Year two? Two flushometers sold. Big progress. But by year three, Sloan sold 150. Word was spreading. Still, some plumbers hated it—too new, too weird, not enough fat pipes (looking at you, Mario). Manufacturers even tried to boycott Sloan’s design.
Joke’s on them. Over a century later, you can still buy replacement parts for original Sloan flushometers. The design just… works. Like a plunger, duct tape, or ibuprofen.
Sloan’s Bathroom Empire
Sloan kept innovating: piston flushometers, special naval versions for ships (yes, the Navy has its own flushometer), and eventually sensor-flush models in the 1970s. Those creepy red-eye urinals at O’Hare that flush before you’re even finished? Sloan.
The company has stayed family-owned through four generations and even sponsors Wrigley Field—so if you’ve ever peed at a Cubs game, Sloan helped you out.
Today they focus on water conservation, which is good because, unlike Chicago in 1870, we’d prefer not to live in a cholera bog again.
Why It Matters
The flushometer turned commercial bathrooms into what we know today: fast-flushing, tankless, high-pressure thrones that can handle thousands of visitors a day. Without Sloan, public restrooms would be slower, grosser, and way more clogged.
So next time you’re in an airport stall and that Sloan handle gives you a mighty whoosh, give a little nod to William Elvis Sloan—the man who took us from bog life to bathroom modernity.
Flush Notes
Sloan invented the flushometer in 1906.
It uses water pressure, not a tank.
First year sales: one. Today: everywhere.
Still family-owned, still making your bathroom experience slightly less terrible.
