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The history of water supply and sanitation is one of a logistical challenge to provide clean water and sanitation systems since the dawn of civilization. Where water resources, infrastructure or sanitation systems were insufficient, diseases spread and people fell sick or died prematurely. Astronaut Jack Lousma taking a shower in space, 1974.
Mar 22, 2017 · Sewage, the trace of our history. March 22, 2017. Sanitation and hygiene. For over 10.000 years we have coexisted with an unavoidable attribute of our civilization: sewage, human waste that even today continues to be lethal for millions of people. A brief review of a history that demystifies us.
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Feb 2, 2021 · The solution to Victorian London’s waste problem was that taken by many urban centres during the 19th century—a vast engineering project to create a coherent and functioning underground sewer network. Primarily designed by engineer Joseph Bazalgette, construction began in 1859, with the bulk of the system completed in less than a decade.
Jun 28, 2022 · Two ancient cities, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa in the Indus Valley, in what is now Pakistan and northeast India, had advanced forms of plumbing by 4000 BCE that included drainage and sewage systems, sitting toilets and underground pipes to dispose of waste. More than 4,000 years ago, ancient Egyptians used copper pipes to transport water and waste.
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Host: Elisabeth Berry Drago Reporter: Rigoberto Hernandez, Sebastian Echeverri Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Audio Engineer: James Morrison Additional production: Dan Drago Special thanks to the Science History Institute’s Center for Oral History and the museumteam for doing some of the research that went into this epis...
Grabar, Henry. “Tunnel Vision.” Slate, January 2, 2019. Handy, Jam. “Waters of the Commonwealth.” Pennsylvania Sanitary Water Board, 1951. Henninger, Danya. “The Incredible Fairmount Water Works: Explosions, Mark Twain and the Long-Lost Philadelphia Aquarium.” Billy Penn, October 10, 2015. Kummer, Frank. “The Secret Scourge of Climate Change? More ...
History of Water Pollution in Philadelphia
Lisa: Hello and welcome to Distillations, a podcast that explores the hilarious, strange, and serious stories at the intersection of science, culture, and history, all powered by the Science History Institute. I’m one of your hosts, Lisa Berry Drago. Philadelphia is the home of the Distillations podcast. And today our episode is all about the history of water pollution here in Philadelphia. This story is in our backyard, but it also has lessons other cities can learn from—specifically, how to...
Chapter One: The Benjamins
Lisa:My face is the coldest face in the world, just kidding. I have a scarf and you don’t, Rigo, so I’m sorry. The Distillations team recently took a walk with our colleague Rebecca Ortenberg, who’s been doing some research into the histories of our local waterways. The Science History Institute is in Old City Philadelphia. Actually, we are right next to what was once Benjamin Franklin’s house. And the waterways we are talking about are literally underneath our feet. Rebecca: In particular, w...
Chapter Two: Typhoid and Filtration
Lisa: From the time the water system is finished in 1824 and until the 1850s, disease-related mortalities dropped thanks to the pristine waters of the Schuylkill River. But those pristine waters were about to become muddier in part because of a new invention known as the water closet, the precursor to modern-day flush toilets. Sebastian: Up until this point people pooped and peed into a privy, which is a hole in the ground. It’s kind of like a porta-potty in that no flushing was required—or p...
Apr 15, 2021 · Building such a system would be an engineering feat of enormous proportions. One challenge then, as now, was to design the sewer pipes to get an optimal flow of water. And so velocity became Chadwick’s “chief obsession,” Martin Melosi writes in The Sanitary City. On the one hand, the water must flow quickly enough to prevent suspended ...
Mar 28, 2019 · The Story of London’s Sewer System. Hidden beneath the city streets of London lie 2,000 kilometres of brick tunnels that take raw sewage from our homes, along with 130 kilometres of interconnecting main sewers the size of railway tunnels. Much was engineered in the middle of the 19th century, including magnificent cathedral-like sewage ...
