It has often been said that cleanliness is next to godliness. This might have been warning words to convince small children to scrub behind their ears, but it shows that washing oneself has long been a human priority. In the modern world, the most popular method of washing is the shower, and the elaborate designs incorporated in the power and electric showers available are feats of engineering in their own right.
As basic as the concept of bathing might be, the demands of the competitive shower business is what has led to such ingenious designs, and the quality of the showering experience has gone far beyond what the earliest inventors could possibly have imagined.
The leading manufacturers, like Mira and Triton showers, invest heavily in their designs, incorporating modern technologies one might not have readily believed would have been incorporated, such as the Triton electric shower range that is operated by remote control.
Most historians point to the common waterfall as the inspiration behind the idea of bathing in running water falling from above, though it might also easily have been rain. The fact is that while early man used rivers and lakes to bathe in, he also loved to stand under waterfalls and have the powerful stream of refreshing water strip away what dirt and sweat had been gathered that day.
The concept was eventually applied indoors, when the gentry of ancient Egypt, Greece and Babylon had their slaves pour large urns of water over them from above, as they themselves scrubbed their bodies with early soaps made mainly of tallow. This type of bathing was popular amongst those not quite wealthy enough to have a heated bathing system, such as the early steam rooms and saunas that are synonymous with life in ancient Greece and Rome.
At the start of the 19th century, the first dedicated showering apparatus was invented. In 1810, the English Regency Shower was put on the market. It was a huge item, with a tank held almost 5 metres over a basin, in which a person stood, with a pump that brought the water from the basin back into the tank. This circulation meant that the person showering did not have to worry about running out of water, for a while at least.
Almost 80 years later, with the benefit of reliable indoor plumbing, the first power shower became available, where a series of small holes strategically placed in the water pipes allowed jets of water to stray onto the bather from a variety of angles. However, by far the most popular shower design has been those that have water fall from above, with the shower head a very important component in the shower system itself.
Modern showers are far more elaborate and the development of tank less showers made it possible for hot showers to be had at the turn of a dial. This type of shower technology incorporates sensors that sense the flow of water through its flow turbine, which then triggers the heating process. As the water flows through a heated metal element, usually a copper coil, the water heats up. What is more, just as heating is triggered to start, heating is also triggered to stop when the temperature reaches a pre established limit.
The convenience of this system has meant a huge change in lifestyle for home owners. Where once water needed to be heated centrally for a period of time, before a hot shower or bath could be had, people can now simply jump into and out of the shower. And while the prevalence of
electric showers means that a hot shower is no longer a remarkable thing, other features such as the power of the shower jets and the level of control, now makes all the difference.
This is where the major shower manufacturers must compete today, with the promise of an invigorating, refreshing shower experience a key aspect in the mind of a buyer. The range of
Triton showers, for example, now includes models such as the T300si, which is fitted flush to the shower cubicle wall and has a digital temperature control interface, right up to the remote control
Triton electric shower, with wall mounted remote for ease of use.
So not only do we no longer need slaves to pour hot water over us, we no longer need to turn a dial, making the latest generation of showers the most convenient yet.
