Delabost's prison shower
Ducha de prisión de Delabost
- Date
- 1872 · confidence medium
- Place
- Rouen, Normandy, France
- Credited to
- François-Merry Delabost
- Field
- Tools
What it is
The Rouen prison doctor installed warm-water showers in place of tub baths for inmates, faster, cheaper and more hygienic. It spread to barracks, schools and public baths and became the basis of the household shower.
The shower has ancient and garden-bath precedents (for example, London, 18th century); Delabost's credit is its systematic use and diffusion.
What it led to
- communal showers in barracks, schools and public baths
- the household shower in the 20th-century bathroom
- savings in water and time for hygiene