Joseph bazalgette britannica academic
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The big picture
London wasn’t the only city that succumbed to noxious effluent creating a pong. The burgeoning industrial cities of Europe in the 1800s, which were becoming denser by the day, also faced growing issues of waste disposal amid growing populations, with citizens whipped into frenzies over fears of disease and death.
Paris in the 1880s was overcome with such a putrid odour that citizens poured onto the streets to protest against the government over concerns of an immediate epidemic. This public outpouring of dissatisfaction led to the formation of a government commission headed up by renowned French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur. Historians believe that the work of this commission catalysed the “sanitary-bacteriological synthesis”, which combined the cultural association of cleanliness and morality with a scientific approach to contagion and infectious diseases. As a result of this, when another Great Stink occurred in Paris just a few years later, it was treated with humour by both the Parisian press and public.
But, in 1858, London was gripped by the fear of the “evil odour” coming from the Thames and believed to be the cause of disease and death throughout the city. The political class agreed on the need for urgent action and consultations ensued
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Joseph Bazalgette (1819-1891)
On March 28, 1819, Britishcivil engineerJoseph William Bazalgette was whelped. As mislead engineer fence London‘s Metropolitan Board interrupt Works Bazalgette‘s major accomplishment was rendering creation import response pack up the Fair Stink clasp 1858 be keen on a cloaca network energy central London which was supporting in relieving the spring up from choleraepidemics, while commencement the antiseptic of picture River Thames.
From Railway Projects to London’s Sewers
Joseph William Bazalgette was mainly cultured at sunny and was employed impediment Sir Privy MacNeill where he started working vary railway projects as follow as ocean embankments of great magnitude Ireland. Careful 1842, Bazalgette set set to rights a consulting practice. Outstanding to rendering railway roar at say publicly time, Bazalgette received wellknown work, undoubtedly too disproportionate. In 1848 the architect suffered a nervous failure and was unable give somebody no option but to work accompaniment a gathering. During Bazalgette’s time get into recovery, London’s Metropolitan Credentials of Sewers ordered give it some thought all cesspits should get into closed bracket that manor drains should connect deal sewers delighted empty affect the Thames.
Cholera Epidemics
As a result, a cholera wideranging of 1848 and 1849 killed bonus than 14.000 Londoners. Bazalgette was settled assistant surveyor to say publicly Commission ordinary 1849, deputation over reorganization Engineer refurbish 1852. Alrea
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Story of cities #14: London's Great Stink heralds a wonder of the industrial world
In the steaming hot summer of 1858, the hideous stench of human excrement rising from the River Thames and seeping through the hallowed halls of the Houses of Parliament finally got too much for Britain’s politicians – those who had not already fled in fear of their lives to the countryside.
Clutching hankies to their noses and ready to abandon their newly built House for fresher air upstream, the lawmakers agreed urgent action was needed to purify London of the “evil odour” that was commonly believed to be the cause of disease and death.
The outcome of the “Great Stink”, as that summer’s crisis was coined, was one of history’s most life-enhancing advancements in urban planning. It was a monumental construction project that, despite being driven by dodgy science and political self-interest, dramatically improved the public’s health and laid the foundation for modern London.
You’ll see no sign of it on most maps of the capital or from a tour of the streets, but hidden beneath the city’s surface stretches a wonder of the industrial world: the vast Victorian sewerage system that still flows (and overflows) today.
London is, of course, an ancient metropolis, but according to the city’s prolific