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In 1858, centuries of
dumping raw human, animal,
and industrial waste directly
into the River Thames
came back to haunt
the city of London
in the form of the great stink.
The smell was so bad
it could cause vomiting
in people miles downwind.
But it would also
eventually lead directly
to the construction of London's
first modern sewer system.
Today, we're going
to take a look
at some nausea-inducing
facts about London's
famous great stink.
But before we get started, be
sure to subscribe to the Weird
History channel and let us
know in the comments below what
other European historical topics
you would like to hear about.
OK, everyone, I got to warn you.
The stink is about to hit.
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Prior to 1858, London's
primitive sewer systems,
to put it mildly, were
in terrible condition.
Delicious raw sewage
was empty directly
into cesspits, large
tanks, or even just deep
holes in the ground.
When they filled up, they
were designed to overflow
into the streets
via crude culverts.
Oh yeah, poopy runoff.
The culverts then emptied
into large trenches,
which just ran down the street
even on major thoroughfares.
And if that doesn't
sound delightful enough,
the waste in the pits
would occasionally
seep through the soil and find
its way into the basements
and foundations of homes.
This created the risk of
too much methane becoming
trapped in air pockets,
which could and sometimes did
cause explosions.
But some waste did
actually make it
all the way to the sewer system,
which was a good thing, right?
Well, no, because the
sewer funneled directly
into the Thames river as
well as several other sources
of drinking water.
Yeah, they were drinking
their own wastewater.
This extremely
disgusting situation
is very likely what caused
the cholera outbreaks
of 1832, 1849, and 1854 in which
many thousands of Londoners
died.
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Advances in technology are
often a mixed blessing.
Such was the case with flush
toilets, which had quickly
become a luxury among
cramped city dwellers who
were used to going all
the way to their basements
to use the bathroom.
However, their proliferation
put an enormous new strain
on an already outdated and
overtaxed sewer system.
Cesspits were designed to
contain an average home's
waste.
But the new flush toilets were
also pumping water into those
[BLEEP] holes.
This made them more likely to
flood homes, which increased
the risk of various diseases.
Eventually, the cesspits were
connected to the city's sewer
system, which, being
designed to handle rainwater,
emptied directly
into the Thames.
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So you're probably
wondering why Londoners
decided to dump their dung
into their drinking water.
Good question.
To be fair, they didn't
realize they were doing it.
Starting in the 1600s, the city
funneled the excrement, as well
as other delightful things like
industrial waste and animal
carcasses, into the
Thames under the belief it
would be all washed out to sea.
The problem was none of
that actually happened.
Part of the Thames
is what's called
a tideway, which means that it's
an area affected by the tides.
Therefore, any of
the waste and sewage
that was dumped into the river
could be carried back or forth
along its length spreading
in either direction.
All of that waste built up
in the river for centuries.
And by 1858, the
entire city of London
was sitting on ground that
was saturated with sewage.
When the heat wave hit, it all
bubbled back up to the surface.
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As early as 1855, the problem
had started to become evident.
And the famous scientist
Sir Michael Faraday
wrote a letter to
The Times of London
to call attention to
the dire conditions.
In the letter, he described
a simple experiment
he had performed to test
the river's opacity.
On a sunny day, he
went to the river
with some white paper cards.
He tore up the cards
and moistened them
so that they would
sink below the surface.
Then he walked along
the bank and dropped
some of the paper
pieces into the water
at every pier he came to.
Again and again, the
results were the same.
The paper bits became
invisible before they had even
sunk an inch below the surface.
While performing the
experiment, he also
observed that in the
vicinity of bridges,
the human waste rolled
up in clouds so dense
that they were visible
at the surface.
Faraday noted that the stink
was common to the whole river,
which was basically just a
giant open sewer at that point.
Emphasizing that his
descriptions weren't
exaggerated or
figurative in any way,
he pleaded with the
authorities to do something.
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By 1858, the Thames was in
an utterly horrific state.
There had been no meaningful
changes to the sewer system
in years.
And a rise in the
population had caused
an increased amount of waste
to be dumped into the river.
At the same time, it was
still the city's main source
of drinking water.
No one was really making
any efforts to clean it up.
And even if they
had, it's not clear
what might have been done
short of building an entirely
new sewer for the whole city.
Hundreds of years of human
and animal waste, garbage,
and industrial byproduct had
turned their water thick,
brown, and opaque.
Only a few years earlier,
Sir Michael Faraday
warned Londoners that if
we neglect this subject,
then a hot season will give
us sad proof of the folly
of our carelessness.
Despite his very
specific warning,
they would neglect the subject.
And the great stink would
soon prove him right.
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As anyone who's ever seen
a disaster movie knows,
ignoring the dire warnings
of a panicked scientist
seldom leads to anything good.
In this case, it
led to June of 1858
when a heatwave
descended on London,
and an accompanying dry spell
made the Thames river nearly
stop flowing.
The summer heat cooked
the fetid water.
And the entire city was
consumed by the stench.
It was so overpowering that
it was blamed for illnesses
among the upper classes.
And townsfolk miles
away were reported
to start vomiting
whenever the wind changed
in an unfavorable direction.
Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli
described the river at the time
as a stygian pool reeking
with ineffable and unbearable
horror.
Man, the British are really
good at beautifully articulating
something that smells terrible.
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It wasn't until
the water dried up
that it became apparent how
much waste was really in it.
It wasn't just sewage either.
The river was
clogged with offal--
industrial waste, dead animals,
street runoff, animal feces,
leftover parts from
slaughterhouses,
rotten food, and literally
centuries of putrified garbage.
The dry spell had brought
it all to the top.
And the heatwave had it
fermenting in the sun.
The people of London
tried to get around town
by using scented handkerchiefs
and various other measures,
but they weren't effective.
Even Queen Victoria herself,
namesake of the whole era,
couldn't escape the stink.
On one attempted
cruise of the river,
she tried to mask the
stench by pressing
a bouquet of fresh
flowers against her nose.
She only lasted a few minutes
before ordering the boat
to be turned around
and redocked so she
could get off and
get as far away
from the river as possible.
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Doctors of the Victorian era
subscribed to a now debunked
idea called the miasma theory.
You may remember this term
from our plague videos
as well as our
Victorian hygiene video.
Check them out.
They're good.
The theory, which was
rooted in thinking
that went all the way
back to the ancient world,
held that diseases were
caused by bad smells.
It was on account of
this belief that the city
and the medical community
focused most of their efforts
on covering up the bad
smells rather than cleaning
the river itself.
This was a mistake.
For many poor people
in London, the Thames
was the primary and often
only source of drinking water.
And they kept using it no
matter how bad things got.
That meant huge swathes
of the population
were regularly
exposed to bacteria
that caused deadly and sweeping
outbreaks of illnesses spread
by contact with feces
like typhoid and cholera.
These early attempts
at tackling the problem
by covering up the smell
had other consequences.
For example, at one
point, authorities
spent a fortune to
dump chloride of lime
into the river, which they
hoped would do the trick.
Not only didn't it
work, but it wound up
adding to the river's toxicity
since chloride of lime
is, in fact, poisonous.
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In something of a break
for the people of London,
Parliament had recently
moved into their new offices
at the palace of
Westminster, which
sat right beside the Thames.
The new location meant
that for the first time,
lawmakers couldn't avoid
smelling the river.
And it's not for lack of trying.
In fact, their first
move was to attempt
to cover up the stink by
drenching the building's
curtains in chloride of
lime, but it didn't work.
The body even
considered relocating
from their new
home at the palace,
but that wasn't
practical or popular.
Letting the poor and powerless
suffer was one thing.
But if lawmakers couldn't avoid
smelling the river themselves,
something would have
to be done about it.
It took just 18
days for parliament
to pass a bill funding the
construction of a brand
new sewer that would fix the
damage done to the Thames
and prevent
additional pollution.
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Parliament placed the task
of redesigning the sewers
into the hands of an
English civil engineer named
Joseph Bazalgette.
He delivered nothing short of
one of the greatest government
work projects of all time
and was widely credited
with saving the city.
Constructing Bazalgette's
entirely new sewer
cost the city the
modern equivalent
of roughly $300 million.
The system, which Bazalgette
had designed two years prior,
consisted of a network of sewers
that ran parallel to the Thames
river rather than into it.
The waste was carried
east of the city
before being emptied
into the river at a point
where it could easily
flow out to sea.
The project also included the
construction of water treatment
stations, embankments to prevent
further buildup of waste,
and the development
of alternative sources
of fresh water.
The action was a huge success.
The Thames quickly returned
to a healthy condition.
And deaths attributable to
poor water quality plummeted.
In fact, the new system was so
well-designed and efficient,
it's still in use
to this very day.
So what do you think?
What is the worst smell
you've ever encountered?
Let us know in the
comments below.
And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos
from our Weird History.
