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Show 'First Bathtub Imported 1 From England About 1820 The first user of a bathtub in this country was the inventor of the cotton cot-ton gin, Eli Whitney. He imported one from England about the year 1820, but just what it was like isn't known. Apparently, however, it was an object of curiosity, for when the tub was not in use Whitney kept it on .exhibition in his front yard in New York city, according to a writer writ-er in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The second user of a bathtub in America was Adam Thompson, a grain and cotton dealer of Cincinnati, Cincin-nati, Ohio, who, in 1842, had an American-made tub installed in his home. The tub was made of mahogany ma-hogany and lined with sheet lead. It was modeled after one used by Lord John Russell, prime minister of England. Thompson's bathtub was such a novelty that he invited a number of gentlemen to his house for dinner and this was followed by a bath in the new tub. The occurrence made news for the local papers, but was frowned upon by the public in general, gen-eral, and especially by physicians, who predicted the use of the newfangled new-fangled bathing contraption would result in more cases of rheumatism, inflammation of the lungs and related re-lated ailments. In 1843 the Common council of Philadelphia seriously considered a proposed ordinance prohibiting bathing in bathtubs between November Novem-ber 1 and March 15, and two years later Boston actually did pass an ordinance prohibiting their use except ex-cept on medical advice. In an attempt at-tempt to prohibit the use of bathtubs bath-tubs many cities increased the wa-r wa-r rntps fnr those nersons owning one. The state of Virginia restrict- N ed their introduction by placing a tax of $30 a year on each tub. |