How A Bunch Of Bros Trying To Help A Sick Family Member Invented The Greatest Party Machine Of All Time

It’s never really a kick ass party until people get into the hot tub. We need no other proof than Hot Tub Time Machine 2, in theaters February 20th, that hot tubs are usually the reason for a monumental experience.

But most bros never ponder intense questions like “where the hell did the idea for the hot tub come from?” Probably because hot tubs usually involve half-naked women and what bro is thinking about history when half-naked cans are dripping with sweat just inches from his brow.

Take for example all the entrants in our World’s Largest Hot Tub Party contest. The top 3 finalists have already been chosen but there’s good news for those school who didn’t make the cut! You’ve still got a shot at an awesome prize.  All you have to do is click HERE to vote for your favorite photo. That vote counts as an entry to either attend the most epic hot tub party or some cold hard cash. There are three prizes you can win just for voting — the top prize is two VIP tickets to the epic hot tub party plus $2500 spending cash, the second prize is $1000 to throw your own party and the third prize is $500 to throw your own party.

For those bros interested in the history, the pioneers of the hot tub are the Jacuzzi brothers. Yes, Jacuzzi is a real last name and they’re the forefathers of hot tubs. But before we dive – figuratively because no diving is allowed in hot tubs – into the breakthrough work of the Jacuzzi bros, here’s a brief history of the original bubbling baths of water therapy.

A Brief But Not Boring History Of The Hot Tub

The earliest hot tubs, called calderas, involved hot stones placed into water to warm it up. This custom can be traced back to as early as the 4th century BC. Remains of wrecked marble bathtubs used for hydrotherapy inside a pre-historic aqueduct in Greece have been unearthed in recent years.

In 737 A.D., Japan’s first hot springs opened near Izumo, Shimane. Centuries later, the first variation of the typical inn or hotel were built in the country. These inns, or ryokan, offered food, sleeping quarters and soaking tubs called ofuro.

Romans so in love with hot water baths and bathhouses that they built their own baths at mineral and thermal springs in every new land they conquered.

Fast forward a couple centuries into the 1940s, and hot tubs finally started popping up in the United States. Inspired by the Japanese versions, hydrotherapy pumps were introduced by a group of Italian immigrants who really had no intention of creating a machine that is now as common in American backyards as barbeque grill and fermented dog dung.

The Jacuzzi Brothers Make Hot Tub History

The Jacuzzi family emigrated from Italy to the United States in the early 1900s. Seven brothers — Francesco, Rachele, Valeriano, Galindo, Candido, Giocondo and Giuseppe, first made their mark in the field of aviation. The brothers Jacuzzi constructed the first enclosed-cabin monoplane. In 1925, the brothers revolutionized the agricultural industry by creating the first submersible pump which changed the way oranges were grown in the state of California.

When sickness struck a young Jacuzzi family member, the brothers jumped to the rescue. The young child, stricken with rheumatoid arthritis, designed an aerating pump that could be submerged in a bathtub. The shooting water provided pain-relieving hydrotherapy treatments to the child. Little did the Jacuzzi brothers realize that their hydrotherapy pump would lead to a new company and make the family household name.

The father of the modern day hot tub and the owner of the coolest name not associated with adult films, third-generation family member Roy Jacuzzi took the portable hydrotherapy pump to the next level in 1968. Roy created the world’s first integrated whirlpool bath and marketed it as “The Roman” – a nod to the family’s deep roots in Europe and the Romans love of leaving hot tubs in every town they conquered.

The key to the success of The Roman was the incorporation of therapy jets into the sides of the tub. Roy’s patented was instrumental in creating a whole new industry for hot tubs. It’s Roy’s Jacuzzi you’re sitting in today. Well, maybe not sitting in right now, but you get the idea.

Vote for your favorite World’s Largest Hot Tub Party entry NOW and check out Hot Tub Time Machine 2 in theaters on February 20th.