Toilet Tech

In his study of the evolution of the bathroom (May/June), Merritt Ierley says that Thomas Crapper had nothing to do with the invention of the toilet. Yet I have read—Wallace Reyburn’s Flushed With Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper is my main source here—that Crapper was indeed awarded Patent No. 4,990 for a Valveless Water-Waste Preventer in 1882 which, according to Reyburn, obtained a flush with only two gallons of water and automatically cut off the flow after the holding tank was refilled. Was Reyburn just making up all of this?