A bathtub, also known simply as a bath or tub, is a container for holding water in which a person or animal may bathe. Most modern bathtubs are made of thermoformed acrylic, porcelain-enameled steel or cast iron, or fiberglass-reinforced polyester. A bathtub is usually placed in a bathroom, either as a stand-alone fixture or in conjunction with a shower. Modern bathtubs have overflow and waste drains and may have taps mounted on them. They are usually built-in, but may be free-standing or sometimes sunken. Until acrylic thermoforming technology permitted other shapes, virtually all bathtubs used to be roughly rectangular. Bathtubs are commonly white in color, although many other colors can be found. Two main styles are common: Western style bathtubs in which the bather lies down. These baths are typically shallow and long. Eastern style bathtubs in which the bather sits up. These are known as furo in Japan and are typically short and deep. History of bathtubs and bathing Documented early plumbing systems for bathing go back as far as around 3300 BC with the discovery of copper water pipes beneath a palace in ancient Europe. Evidence of the earliest surviving personal sized bath tub was found on the Isle of Crete where a long pedestal tub was found built from hardened pottery. The clawfoot tub, which reached the apex of its popularity in the late 19th century, had its origins in the mid 18th century, when the ball and claw design originated in the Netherlands, possibly artistically inspired by the Chinese motif of a dragon holding a precious stone. The design spread to England, where it found much popularity among the aristocracy, just as bathing was becoming increasingly fashionable. Early bathtubs in England tended to be made of cast iron, or even tin and copper with a face of paint applied that tended to peel with time. The Scottish-born inventor David Buick invented a process for bonding porcelain enamel to cast iron in the 1880s while working for the Alexander Manufacturing Company in Detroit. The company, as well as others including Kohler Company and J. L. Mott Iron Works, began successfully marketing porcelain enameled cast-iron bathtubs, a process that remains broadly the same to this day. Far from the ornate feet and luxury most associated with clawfoot tubs, an early Kohler example was advertised as a "horse trough/hog scalder, when furnished with four legs will serve as a