Drainage failure, stench all over the city? World Building Water Supply and Drainage Day, revealing the great stink of London more than 160 years ago

March 11th of each year is the World Water Day for Buildings, Waterworks and Drainage, which is recognized by the World Water Association. The purpose of launching this international day is to increase the global attention paid to the waterworks and drainage industry and to emphasize the importance of waterworks and drainage to human health and the environment. The great writer Hugo once said that the sewer is the conscience of a city. Indeed, if a city wants to stay tidy and clean, it cannot do without the contribution of sewers. But in fact, the development of modern sewers has not been smooth sailing, but has paid a considerable price. When it comes to this topic, we cannot avoid London.

01 Feces with nowhere to go

Speaking of the Thames River in London, everyone knows that it is a river that carries the history of Britain. However, what is less known is that the Thames River was once a major "sewer" in London. Before the 19th century, residents living in London would dump all kinds of domestic garbage and even excrement directly into the Thames River, allowing the Thames River to carry these garbage into the sea.

Paintings satirizing the water quality of the Thames River in the early to mid-19th century. The top picture is "The Thames Water is Monster Soup" created by artist William Heath in 1828, and the bottom picture is "A Drop of Thames Water" published in the British "Punch" magazine in 1850 (Source: Wikipedia)

Initially, excrement was not dumped directly into the river by every household, but was taken away by night soil workers for treatment. With the development of the Industrial Revolution, the population of London increased. By 1851, the population of London had grown from about 1 million in the early 19th century to more than 2 million, becoming the most populous city in the world at that time. At that time, landlords in London wanted to rent out kitchens and partitions. But as the population of London increased, the price charged by night soil workers became higher and higher, even exceeding the wages of ordinary people. Therefore, many families were less and less willing to let night soil workers come to remove excrement, but let the excrement accumulate in the basement, yard and even at home, flowing everywhere, and finally entering the Thames under the scouring of rainwater.

"The Dirty Old Man of the Thames" published in the British magazine Punch in 1848 "Dirty river, dirty river , from London to Knowle , you are a huge drain , you are a huge public riverbank , and nothing else" ( Source: Wikipedia )

Someone might suggest that everyone use flush toilets. Yes, flush toilets were already in use at this time, but this became a disaster for the Thames - because flush toilets used too much water, which accelerated the overflow of feces, and finally had to flush the excrement directly into the Thames.

The improved version of the flush toilet invented by British inventor Joseph Blamey was the world's first practical flush toilet. ( Source: Wikipedia )

02 Disease and panic

Living next to such a large "septic tank", diseases are inevitable. Epidemics such as scarlet fever and tuberculosis occurred one after another. In 1832, cholera broke out. This is an intestinal disease that can cause death in as little as 24 hours. But people did not know the cause of the disease. In 1848, cholera returned, causing panic among people and heavy deaths. After this cholera outbreak, some doctors discovered that cholera was caused by contaminated drinking water. But people still believed that cholera was spread by dirty air and refused to accept the view that "cholera was caused by contaminated drinking water."

But in 1858, the situation was different. In that year, London experienced several abnormally high temperatures, with the highest temperature even reaching 34 degrees Celsius. The high temperature directly intensified the stench of the river water, and the stench rose up and drifted into people's noses. The whole of London was stinking, and some media called this incident the "Great Stink of London."

Many people fled the city of London and moved to the countryside or other places. Those who had nowhere to go stayed in the city and had to face the stench day and night. With the media hyping it up, the stench caused panic among people. Finally, under everyone's strong call, the London government began to manage the Thames.

03 Explosive sewer renovation

This project was not easy. Everyone had their own plan, but everyone thought that other people's plans were not feasible. Finally, under pressure, the government passed Joseph Bassage's plan, which had been revised several times, and agreed to make major changes to London's underground drainage system.

In 1859, the project officially started. Bassage redesigned the underground drainage system. He used sewage interception pipes to allow sewage to avoid the Thames and divert sewage to a place far away from the city. In order to allow sewage to flow along the terrain from high to low, he also built lifting pumps in some places and dug deeper in some places. At the same time, in order to prevent these honeycomb sewers from hollowing out the underground of London and causing collapse, Bassage also invented a method for checking cement, which is still useful today. Using this cement, thousands of workers made 300 million solid cement bricks. Although some accidents occurred during the construction process, such as digging up gas pipelines, landslides, and digging through subway projects, due to strict control, no casualties were caused.

Sewer construction work around the Old Ford and Fort area of ​​East London in 1859 ( Source: Wikipedia )

In 1865, this arduous project was finally completed, and all the sewage was discharged into the sea, and the stench of London finally disappeared. But in the same year, cholera came again. This time, there was no stench, and people finally realized that cholera was related to water sources. Fortunately, the newly built sewers have separated sewage and groundwater, solved the problem of water sources, and effectively dealt with the ravages of cholera. The success of the London sewer can be said to have led the development of modern sewers. Many places began to follow London's example and vigorously build sewers, such as New York in the United States. The London sewer is also known as "one of the seven wonders of the industrial world." In order to commemorate the engineer Basset, people made a statue for him.

In 1883, the British magazine Punch called Basset "the sewer snake" (Source: Wikipedia)

However, this sewer cannot be solved once and for all. With the development of London, the population has increased several times compared to the 19th century. In 2009, people found that some parts of the sewer were blocked by large pieces of grease, and workers were needed to go to clear the grease. The grease in the sewer mainly comes from people pouring oil or grease-containing things into the sewer. Grease will accumulate into blocks over time and wrap non-degradable garbage and calcium to form large lumps. In 2019, people found a 250-meter-long and 400-ton block of fat in the London sewer. Finally, 1,000 liters of biofuel were extracted from the grease, which is enough to power London's 350 double-decker buses for a day. After a major cleaning and inspection, the London government has to rebuild this old building that is related to the national economy and people's livelihood.

References

【1】Mao Lixia, A Study on the Sewerage Reform in London in the 19th Century, Journal of Suzhou University of Science and Technology, 2019

【2】Sam Velleca, Scent and Sanity: The Great Stink of 1858 and Hysterical Illness, Velleca

【3】Bromley Record in Rosemary Ashton, One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli and the Great Stink of 1858 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017)

【4】Allison Friedman,The Great Stink and toilets of the future, STORYWORKS. SCHOLASTIC,2020

【5】LIDA Y S. The great stink of London. Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the cleansing of the Victorian capital [M J. Stroud. Sutton Publishing. 2007.

Author: Jiuyi Popular Science Creator

Reviewer: Song, Yuan and Ming Associate Professor, Institute of History of Science and Cultural Heritage, University of Science and Technology Beijing

Produced by: Science Popularization China

Produced by: China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., China Science and Technology Publishing House (Beijing) Digital Media Co., Ltd.