The Great Stink of 1858: When London Literally Drowned in Feces

Описание: Forget the romantic image of gentlemen in top hats and elegant carriages! If you stepped out of a time machine in London in the summer of 1858, you wouldn’t be greeted by the majesty of the British Empire, but by a wall of stench that would bring you to your knees. Welcome to "The Great Stink"—a time when the capital of the world was literally drowning in its own filth.

In this video, we travel back to a brutal heatwave that turned the River Thames into a boiling, black sludge of human waste and animal carcasses. We uncover the bitter irony of how the invention of the modern flush toilet actually triggered this catastrophe and poisoned the city's drinking water. You will learn why people were terrified of the smell, believing in the "Miasma Theory" that the odor itself was a cloud of death.

We look behind the scenes of power:

The Government on the Run: How the stench disrupted Parliament so badly that they hung sheets soaked in chloride over the windows and considered moving the government to Oxford.

The Hero of the Sewers: Joseph Bazalgette, the civil engineer who saved modern London with 318 million bricks and an army of laborers.

The Invisible Killer: The fight against Cholera and Typhoid, and how science battled against the stubbornness of the establishment.

The Legacy: Why we still rely on Bazalgette’s pipes today and why this disgusting summer was actually the best thing that ever happened to the city.

This video is not for the faint of stomach. It demonstrates just how fragile civilization really is and that without functioning sewers, we would descend into chaos within days. Be grateful for your toilet and join us in the smelliest era of history!

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