Sir John Harington invented the first modern flush toilet in 1596, featuring a cistern-fed water system to flush waste.

Sir John Harington, godson of Queen Elizabeth I, designed a flush toilet with a 2-foot-deep bowl waterproofed using pitch and wax. His invention used rainwater stored in a rooftop cistern to flush waste, though it required large volumes of water and was not widely adopted at the time. This design laid the groundwork for later improvements in flush toilets.