One engineer dreams of making London a cleaner, healthier place. His name is Joseph Bazalgette.
How did Joseph Bazalgette solve the great stink?
By embanking large sections of the River Thames in central London, Bazalgette’s scheme not only concealed new sewers, but also created flood defences for the capital. Here the wall of Chelsea Embankment, west of Albert Bridge, is virtually complete.
Who started the Great Stink?
The fault lay with the East London Water Company, who discharged their sewage half a mile ( 800 m) downstream from their reservoir: the sewage was being carried upstream into the reservoir on the incoming tide, contaminating the area’s drinking water.
What happened to the big stink?
In June 1959 it was moved into storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, and was dropped from the U.S. Air Force inventory in February 1960 as salvage.
What diseases were caused by the Great Stink?
Victorians had no known cure for Cholera and didn’t understand how it spread. Of all the theories of how cholera was transmitted—including bad weather, foul smells, electromagnetism and divine vengeance—it was the misguided idea that disease spreads through the air via bad smells that held the most sway.
What did Joseph Bazalgette do?
Sir Joseph William Bazalgette was a civil engineer in the 19th century who built London’s first sewer network (still in use today), which helped to wipe out cholera in the capital. He also designed the Albert, Victoria and Chelsea embankments, which housed the sewers, in central London.
What was the result of the great stink?
The result was a smell as offensive and disgusting as can ever be imagined. It spawned accounts such as the following: there were “stories flying of men struck down with the stench, and of all kinds of fatal diseases, up-springing on the river’s banks.”
Who invented the stink bomb?
Crocker was recruited in 1943 to design one of its most creative weapons—a military-grade stink bomb that could be distributed to resistance groups and used to make its target “a source of derision or contempt,” according to declassified OSS files.
How did England clean the Thames?
Then, in 1960, plans to clean up the Thames river was established again, such as improving waste treatment facilities, removing industrial waste, adding oxygen into the river using technology called bubble boats, and even the use of biodegradable detergent.
Why does the Thames look so dirty?
The River Thames appears brown because there is silt on the riverbed. This silt is made up of fine particles which disperse in the water and make it look muddy.
Who cleaned the Thames?
Joseph Bazalgette’s sewage design was easily one of the most incredible engineering feats of the nineteenth century. Work began on the system in 1859, and took twenty years to complete. The last epidemic of cholera took place in 1866 in the East End of London, a section not yet connected to Bazalgette’s system.
Is the Thames still polluted?
But while the river may now be one of the cleanest city rivers in the world, a new environmental epidemic is taking hold; plastic pollution. The problem derives mainly from the more unsuspecting plastics.
Who was Father Thames?
Old Father Thames was an old god of the River Thames and would help runaways flee along the river. Old Father Thames gave instructions to the River Giant never to open the gates he was guarding unless given orders to.
What is the smelliest thing in the universe?
Recent research has pinned down the fact the planet smells like rotten eggs. A team of astronomers discovered recently that it is none other than Hydrogen Sulfide, a gas that gives it that distinct smell and which is present abundantly in the atmosphere of Uranus.
How did the River Thames get cleaned?
It was decided that ‘Treatment plants‘ should be built to clean the water from the Thames before it was pumped to homes. The treatment plants also cleaned dirty water from homes before it went back into the Thames. Not only did the people’s health improve but also the water in the Thames became cleaner.
How dirty was London in the 19th century?
In the 19th century, London was the capital of the largest empire the world had ever known — and it was infamously filthy. It had choking, sooty fogs; the Thames River was thick with human sewage; and the streets were covered with mud.
Where is bazalgette buried?
St Mary’s Church
Bazalgette lived at 17 Hamilton Terrace, St John’s Wood, north London, for some years. Before 1851, he moved to Morden, then in 1873 to Arthur Road, Wimbledon, where he died in 1891. He was buried in the nearby churchyard at St Mary’s Church.
Who paid for London sewers?
Sir Joseph William Bazalgette, 1877
Parliament initially offered £2.5 million, somewhere between £240 million and over a billion pounds in today’s values.
How long did it take Joseph Bazalgette to build the sewers?
Over the next 16 years, Bazalgette constructs 82 miles (132km) of main intercepting sewers, 1100 miles of street sewers, four pumping stations and two treatment works.
How did the great stink improve public health?
As a result of the Great Stink, the government invested in the construction of a new sewerage system for London. This was designed by Joseph Bazalgette. The new system was designed in 1858 and completed in 1875. The system was built in response to the Great Stink.
Can you swim in River Thames?
The tidal Thames is a fast-flowing waterway and the busiest inland waterway in the UK accommodating over 20,000 ship movements and hosting over 400 events each year. It is for these reasons the PLA restricts swimming throughout the majority of its jurisdiction for the safety of swimmers and river users.