WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Soap Dragon 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.720 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:11.000 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:14.080 Time to go into the Old Vault. This episode originally 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.440 aired on June four, nineteen, and it was called The 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:20.439 Soap Dragon. This was about the monsters that we make 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:25.160 in our sewers out of fats, oils, grease, and wet wipes, 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:27.280 all the things you should not put down your drain, 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:30.200 you should not flush, and yet people do a k 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:33.760 a fat Bergs. This was the episode I believe that 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:38.240 gave us fatburg Cop so uh, one of our favorite 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.520 recurring characters on the show. So so yeah, let's let's 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:46.640 jump right in. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:55.720 a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, you, 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:57.560 welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:00.600 Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and I thought maybe 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:02.920 we should start off with a little don't do what 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:06.199 Donnie Don't does? All right, tell you tell us about 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:08.880 Donnie Don't. Okay, so let's let's let's see what Donnie 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:11.000 Don't is doing and see if maybe we should don't 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.759 do what he does? Uh, try and spot the don't. 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.280 So Donnie Don't is he's cooking up a big old 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:19.120 mess of French fries in his deep friar, and he 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:21.600 eats all the fries while watching RoboCop three, and then 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:23.840 it's time to clean up. So first of all, he 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.760 realizes he is greasy all over from eating this big 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:28.800 batch of fries, so he gives himself a good wipe 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.319 down with some wet wipes, and then he flushes them 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:33.960 down the toilet. Now it's time to get rid of 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.240 the gallon of duck fat that he used to cook 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:38.840 his fries. So what does he do? He pours it 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.920 straight down the drain in the bathtub. Now, I think 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.000 most of us can easily I don't know about all 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:48.680 of us, because somebody's obviously doing what Donnie Don't does, 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:51.360 but I think most of us can easily spot the 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.000 Donnie don'ts here. He's made several errors, but now I 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.440 think it's pretty common knowledge that you are not supposed 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:00.760 to flush wet wipes and other non toilet page products 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.960 down the toilet, and you're definitely not supposed to pour 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:06.480 fat down the drain. Yeah, I mean there's some other 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:09.280 things that he's doing to potentially criticize. I mean, I 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:12.720 don't I don't know how how often he's eating French 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:15.800 fries that have been fried in duck fat. Like, if 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.640 he's doing that too often, that's probably not great for 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.120 his health. But you know, once in a while, why not, right, Um, 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:24.560 RoboCop three, I have no problem with that. It may 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.240 not be the strongest of the RoboCop movies, but it's 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:29.720 uh it has like cyber Ninjes in it. That's kind 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.120 of cool. But yeah, it's the it's the wet wipes 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:35.079 and then pouring that grease down the drain. And it's 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:36.680 the pouring of the grease down the drain. I often 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:40.440 forget that. That is a key rule. Oh do you 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:42.399 do you break this one? No? I I just I'm 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:44.840 generally not in a position to break it because we 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:48.600 just don't. We don't cook with with fat uh much 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:53.040 anymore at all anymore. And uh, and then as far 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:55.119 as wet wipes go, like I know, not to put 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.720 wet wipes down though, really no oils in your house, 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:01.440 no salad dressing, no like, no olive oil or anything. 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:04.280 But not duck fat. Oh well, I mean, of course, 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:08.400 other like non animal fats are still like fats and oils. 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:10.800 But I guess what I'm thinking, Like I I remember, 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:13.120 so I shouldn't have said just duck fat. I mean 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:15.960 that you're not supposed to pour oil or lipids of 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.600 any time down a drain but but but specifically like 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:22.600 the you know, like a big fry vat kind of 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:28.560 drainage situation. Like I I remember seeing jars of of 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.320 of fat and oil like underneath the sink. Oh yeah, 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:33.480 growing up, because like that was, you know, the appropriate 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.640 thing to do. That's a grandma's house kind of thing, 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:38.160 like the big old mason jar of bacon grease under 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:40.600 the sink. And then of course when whenever we go, 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.880 if you go to um a fast food restaurant or 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:47.520 even a restaurant in general, you're gonna find that big 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:50.000 grease trap outside. Like sometimes it's a little bit hidden, 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.560 but sometimes there's no place to hide it. It's just 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.440 right up front. It's just there in the parking lot. Yeah. 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.720 I remember one of my jobs that I worked at 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.200 when I is in college. Every morning when i'd go 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:04.600 into it, I'd have to park in the parking lot 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:07.400 of a restaurant that was like next to where I worked, 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:10.600 and I parked right next to their big it was 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:12.760 like a Burger and Fry's place and the heart next 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:16.360 to their big grease grease depository. Uh. And it just 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.880 looked like the saddest robot from some Star Wars spinoff, 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:24.880 like Lithuanian Star Wars has our Ford, uh, you know 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:28.560 D seven And it's this big black thing with with 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:34.000 like this dripping, sad, grease tears stained head. But of 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:36.160 course that's this restaurant usage, and we can I think 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.760 we can all understand that. I mean, there's certain rules 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.640 and regulations there they're following, and they're also producing just 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.200 a ton of this, uh, this material. I wonder if 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.680 like the problem with a household situation is either you're 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.080 creating so little that you don't think about it, so 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:53.360 it's like death by thousand cuts right right, or you know, 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:57.560 when you do produce a more sizeable amount doing you know, 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.520 some sort of frying scenario like you do, suddenly have 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:03.520 this this huge mess to clean up. And it's easy 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:07.160 to just convince yourself, I'm just gonna do the easy thing. 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:08.960 I'm just gonna go and put it down the sink 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:11.520 and next time I'll do better. Right, Who's gonna know, 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:14.679 But maybe we should step back and ask a question. 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:16.520 I mean, it's not like RoboCop is going to show 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:20.200 the house, right, right, So that's what they do in 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.719 RoboCop too, right. They reprogram him so instead of fighting crime, 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.240 he goes out and he he pursues uh, minor infraction, 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.480 minor and littering and stuff like that and people using 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:34.279 swear words. Uh. So we should ask this question of 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:36.440 wait a minute, why are you not supposed to do 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:39.359 these things? Why are you not supposed to pour oil 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:43.440 and fat and grease down the drain? Well, one reason 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:45.280 you're not supposed to do this has to do with 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:49.400 the way sewers work. Sewers are, I say, with no hesitation, 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.039 one of the greatest human inventions. And if you doubt this, 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.559 listen to our invention episodes on the toilet, or listen 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:59.440 to uh we did an episode of stuff to blow 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.960 your mind out, the miasma theory of disease. And in 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.720 all of these we talk about how you know, properly 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:09.680 maintained sanitary sewer facilities are are not not just there 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:12.760 to make our homes and our streets more pleasant, like 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.320 they play a crucial role in protecting public health and 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:20.760 preventing outbreaks of diseases, especially fecal oral route diseases which 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:23.960 are as gross as they sound, diseases like cholera. UH. 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:28.239 Sewers work when everything flows smoothly to its destination point 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:31.599 at a treatment facility, and they're one of the best 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:35.240 innovations in the history of civilization. I say that no 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:38.840 qualifications at all. But sometimes things get in the way, 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:42.799 like tree roots can intrude on sewer pipes and block flow. 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.000 We live here in Atlanta where there are a lot 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.000 of trees and a lot of a lot of old 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:50.880 large trees and places that are intersecting with sewer pipes, 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.720 and so this we know about this happening a lot. UH. 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.640 And of course they can cause turbulence and this can 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.240 lead to build up. Or we can have old, decaying 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:03.040 sewer mains that crack and do similar stuff. And sometimes 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:07.719 blockages in these sewer sewer pipes occur from the inside out. 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.800 One of the most all inspiring things that can block 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:15.119 a sewer is what we're going to be talking about today. 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:17.720 It's something that has in recent years come to be 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:22.640 known as a fat berg. According to an article I 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:25.800 was reading by Kelly oaks and new scientists from earlier 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.520 this year. Uh. This term was apparently coined in two 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:31.280 thousand and eight, but it became widely popular after news 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:36.120 reports about a huge fatberg in and what it refers 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:41.640 to is a giant, solidified mass of stuff based on 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:45.240 fats and oils that just states in the heart of 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:49.160 a sewer system, feeding on things like wet wipes and 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:53.360 floss and other trash, but especially on fats and the 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:57.880 byproducts of fats, like cooking oils, you know, uh, grease 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:01.840 from cooking animals, all that stuff that people wash down 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:04.600 the drain when they just either dump out oils they 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:06.560 cook with or just when they wash their dishes and 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:08.800 the oils that are already on the dishes come come 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:11.320 off and go down the down the tubes. Yeah, I 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.080 understand that they're like the wet wives, the floss, all 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:16.440 that can can sort of serve as a substrate. Right. 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.160 It was like a scaffolding on which this, uh, this 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.360 new mass will form. Yeah, and we'll talk about how 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.040 it forms in a little bit. But I wanted to 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.000 talk about the terminology because while fat bergs has really 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:31.840 caught on with the public, this is like what I 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:34.360 think The reason that there have been so many articles 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.120 in recent years about fat bergs is just because of 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:40.640 the term fat bergs, Like there was now this beautiful, 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:44.520 attractive terminology for it, whereas previously, especially in the US, 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:46.920 I think they were referred to primarily with the acronym 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:51.400 fogs for fat oil and grease or frogs for fat 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:54.360 roots as in tree roots and oil and grease. But 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:57.080 have a really missing opportunity there to dug to dub 0:08:57.120 --> 0:09:01.400 them for instead of frogs, same letters, but it would 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:03.640 have scratched more of a chudditch, you know, and I 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:05.520 think maybe would have resonated a little more. Maybe not 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.400 as much as fat bergs ultimately did, but I mean 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:13.360 attack of the forges where the forges, I feel like 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.360 that could have resonated with with the public. If there 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:18.520 is not already a movie about one of these things 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:23.280 becoming sentient, there will be soon. But one particularly massive 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:25.920 fat burg that we might linger on for a bit 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:29.520 has been covered extensively, especially in the British press. This 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.000 was the White Chapel Burg. It was removed in Tween 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:36.400 and it was a mass blocking the sewer under the 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.080 under White Chapel Road in East London. I think this 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.680 was Jack the Rippers neighborhood. Yeah, I think that adds 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.200 to the appeal of the white Chapel Fatburg. And it 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:50.000 sounds even more sinister exactly. And the burg itself, in 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.960 a way, was sort of a white chapel. It's like this, uh, 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:56.240 this unholy things, sort of a gray off white color. 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:59.880 And so it was about two hundred and fifty meter 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.080 ars long or about eight hundred and twenty feet, and 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:06.880 it weighed probably about a hundred and thirty tons. And 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:10.679 this monster was so magnificent that a piece of it 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.400 was broken off and displayed in a special exhibit in 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:17.719 the Museum of London. And I came across a gorgeous, 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:23.439 absolutely haunting description of this sewage fatburg fragment by Sam 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.560 Knight in The New Yorker. And this, this description of 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.120 the Fatburg was so moving that I have to quote 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:32.880 from it. Are you ready, Robert? The piece of Fatburg 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:36.040 was slightly smaller than a loaf of bread and looked 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.360 like it might have come from the moon. It was 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:43.520 putty colored and marked everywhere with geological looking indentations, including 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:46.439 a cluster of fingerprints from when it was removed from 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:50.000 a sewer. In East London last October and lifted through 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:53.120 a manhole. On the surface, there was also a dark 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:56.319 fragment from an autumn leaf which must have slipped down 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:59.960 the drains into its mall. Emerging through the congealed cow 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.480 alsified fat was the purple and orange perforated edge of 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:07.360 a double decker chocolate bar wrapper. Every detail of the 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:10.800 hideous object was starkly visible because it was resting on 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:13.920 a bed of black granules under a spotlight in a 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.160 glass box at the Museum of London at the opening 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:20.720 of its new exhibition Fat Bird. I stared at it 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.760 for a while, and while I did so, a tiny 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:27.480 dark speck on the Fat Bird became animate and started 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:31.240 to move. A fly the size of a pinhead flew 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:35.199 up and battered against the glass. That's pretty great because 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.040 he capture us this sense of it almost being alive 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:42.120 and uh, and and also this this haunting feeling that 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:46.679 it is like our sins. Uh, may you know, manifested 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:51.319 into a physical form, Like here is all your recklessness 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:55.160 and your you're you're willing and stuff to flush inappropriate 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:58.720 things down the toilet. Well, here it is altogether, uh, 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:03.160 to confront you to point it's grotesque finger at Yeah, 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:05.840 I hope this description of the fatburg it's nominated for 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:09.920 like a Pulitzer Prize. That's uh, it's powerful stuff. But 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.560 the seen white chapelberg that mentioned a minute ago was 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:17.720 by no means the only fatburg. Fat Burgs form all 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:21.800 the time in cities all around the world due to 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:26.480 people flushing and washing fats and other inappropriate stuff down 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:30.079 the drain. According to Night's article, it's estimated that London 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:34.280 alone has at least five large fat bergs at any 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:36.920 given time, So sometimes you know, they go down there 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:40.280 to fight them, but they're they're always new ones forming. 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:44.680 So let's talk about size. They can become so huge. 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:47.280 Let me restate what I said a minute ago. This 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:51.000 white Chapel beast was two hundred and fifty meters long, 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:54.640 which is approximately the length of the Hindenburg, and it 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:58.439 weighed probably about a hundred and thirty tons or heavier 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:03.360 by about a third than the biggest ever soarra pod dinosaurs. 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:05.680 Of course, it makes sense because they were talking about 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:09.760 a massive sewage system. We're talking about massive consumption, a 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:14.840 massive population, and therefore the clog the thing is going 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:16.960 to be massive as well, well, yeah, and also you 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.880 want to consider the particulars of the London sewer system, 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:21.920 because this is where a lot of these stories come from. 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.520 The London sewer system. You know, it's it's got Victorian elements, 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:27.840 and it was the sewer system built over a hundred 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.000 years ago, uh, you know, back in Victorian times, as 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:33.280 a response to the great stink you know that we've 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:36.520 talked about on on this show before, where the you know, 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:40.400 sewage being discharged into the Thames. One year in the 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:43.240 believe it is the eighteen fifties or sixties, sometime in 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:46.120 the middle of the nineteenth century, it got so foul 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:49.160 and it stanks so bad that Parliament was just you know, 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:53.400 about to puke in their uh, in their deliberation chambers. 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.320 And so they eventually did something about it, and that 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.720 was to get this sewage system, uh, not only because 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:01.600 of the smell, but also because it was a you know, 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:03.880 the sewage system that they had in place of the time, 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.040 which consisted of more like open sewers in the streets 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.280 and stuff draining into the Thames which then people would 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:13.120 drink out of. It was just leading to the collar 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:17.600 out breaks and terrible public health conditions and these horrible stinks. 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:21.120 So they created this massive sewer system under the ground 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:23.960 in order to take away all of the waste water 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:26.560 and discharge it away from the city. So you've got 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:30.239 these like in some cases very large, like old, elaborate 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:34.480 and some sometimes kind of beautiful brick built sewage channels 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.320 and you know, access tunnels and all this. Uh so, 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:40.960 so you've got old facilities. But you might be wondering. Okay, 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.480 so one of these giant beasts, You've you've got a 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:49.080 hindenburg of fat and sewage and waste stuck in the sewer, blocking, 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:53.160 blocking things, preventing them from flowing. What do you do 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.760 about it? Well, that's the question. We're gonna take a 0:14:55.840 --> 0:15:01.520 quick break and when we come back we will answer it. Okay, 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:03.640 we're back. So we're talking about fat bergs. How do 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:06.240 you fight them. You've got one of these giant concrete 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:11.800 fat conglomerations made out of wet wipes and and dental 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.920 floss and old you know, wrappers of food and bits 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:18.640 of plastic, and of course all of these fats and 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.840 oils and grease and sewage and waste. It just makes 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.040 this huge mass that blocks up the sewers. What do 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.880 you do about it? Well, you literally have sewer workers 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.360 that go down to break it up and remove it. 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:34.240 The city sewer workers in London are known as flushers, 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.160 and they have to fight these wicked villains. They have 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:39.640 to go down and confront the ball rog in person. 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:42.800 And in Night's article in The New Yorker, he he 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:47.000 talks about the process of breaking up the White Chapel mass. So, 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.080 first of all, he says, they've got to wear protection, 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:51.640 and they've got to have a breathing apparatus because this 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:54.160 thing is in a way alive. It's got a lot 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:57.760 of uh life feeding on it, and as a result, 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:01.800 it can let out sudden explosion of gas like hydrogen sulfide, 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:04.440 which of course smells like rotten eggs and is the 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.520 It's a common gas released as a byproduct of decaying 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:11.000 organic matter, but it also releases methane, and sometimes it 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:13.680 can just blast out carbon monoxide, which can be deadly. 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:16.720 So let's say you're outfitting your D and D Adventure 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:19.840 the flusher class to go down into this dungeon and 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:22.760 fight the monster. What weapons do you want to equip 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:25.600 them with? We'll probably not fire. Fire would seems like 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.920 a bad idea. Oh yeah, that's uh. And and unfortunately 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.240 they are not a magic using class, so they don't 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:33.680 have any spells available to them. I don't know. Is 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:35.400 that a thing in D and D there's some classes 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.320 who can't do spells, right? Uh? Yeah, I mean it 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:39.880 seems like there are a lot of classes that have 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:42.320 some sort of magical abilities, especially as they level up. 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:46.840 But yeah, this sounds more like like fighter um uh 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:49.120 material right here. You need somebody to go down and 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:53.280 physically fight this physical threat and remove it. These are paladins. 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:57.240 I'll allow it. I'll allow it. I mean, paladins have 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.800 some some you know that they have holy powers, et cetera. 0:16:59.880 --> 0:17:03.120 But a lot of these powers are about like, you know, 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:07.199 increasing their physical prowess. Right, Okay, certainly I don't know 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:10.879 my stuff. Sorry, Okay, we'll say their paladins anyway. Uh So, 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:14.200 the Mighty Flusher's weapons include the bomb hose. That's the 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:17.360 term bomb hose, which is just like a high pressure 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:20.240 water jet that should be able to cut through blockages. 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:24.280 It's like a cutting jet. But apparently, according to Night's article, 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.320 even this didn't work all that well on the hardened 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:30.480 mass of the White Chapelberg, and so later on these 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.520 these warriors had to use more old fashioned implements like 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:37.000 pick axes, shovels, and he says in one case even 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:41.280 us Saul. When pieces were removed and kept for the 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:45.359 London Museum exhibit, one expert who handled them described the 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:49.199 fatberg chunks as sort of hard but light feeling like 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:53.880 pumice stone. I think that was interesting. Yeah, but even 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.320 the smaller one so so that one's gigantic, But even 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:59.920 the smaller ones are still huge in disgusting ways. I've 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.520 on a brilliantly funny article with a great title on 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:07.760 Atlas Obscura by Jessica lee Hester from January of this year, 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:10.679 is called seven big Things. They're smaller than this fatburg, 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:14.840 and it refers to another British fatburg, one found in 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:17.960 a sewer beneath the town in beneath the town in Devon, 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:21.000 and according to the water utility in that area, it 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.480 was the largest fatberg that they had come across in 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:25.840 that area. It was about two ten feet or about 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.199 sixty five ms uh. And so so what are the 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.280 things she lists as smaller than this fatberg, at least 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:34.359 in terms of dimensions. I don't think they had weight 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.200 on it at the time she was writing. Um, so 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:40.640 smaller in terms of length was the above water surface 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:44.320 height of the iceberg that sunk the Titanic, the tallest 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:48.960 known Ginko tree in the world, the Christ the Redeemer statue, 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:52.720 and Rio de Jannaro, the Coney's Island or the Coney 0:18:52.760 --> 0:19:00.000 Islands Wonder Wheel, uh, the Statue of Liberty, the Roman Colosseum, 0:18:59.840 --> 0:19:04.160 and Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square all smaller than this Fatburg, 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:07.520 which is not even the largest Fatburg by a long shot. 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:10.520 And she also pointed out something in in her article 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.840 that was just an interesting phrasing of things that it's 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.159 sort of echo thoughts I'd been having as I was 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:20.600 reading about Fatburg's in in Hester's words quote, the chunky 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:24.560 gunky sewer cloggers are murky mirrors into the behaviors of 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:27.840 people above ground because they hold all the stuff we 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:32.520 flush and try to forget about, including cooking, grease, napkins, floss, 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.439 minstrel products which don't belong in the pipes in the 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:39.040 first place. So it's this idea of like these are 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:41.720 sort of the the places of all the things that 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:43.920 we want to just get out of our lives. It's, 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:48.200 you know, the purging of convenience all becomes this mass. Yeah, 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:51.520 and again it kind of it confronts us once more. 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:54.679 The horror is even greater because it is all it 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:58.159 is a it's it's congealed into this this massive form. 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:00.560 And I think maybe that is part of like the 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:03.520 psychological reason why people can't look away, Like why was 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.440 there a museum exhibit about these things where everybody wanted 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.239 to go see them? It's this fascinating, uh, you know, 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:13.040 almost kind of freudy and feeling kind of thing, like 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:17.240 the suppressed part of our culture and civilization. It's what's 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:20.760 shoved down and covered up and not looked at, almost 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:23.840 out of a sense of shame, and it becomes this stuff. 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:26.000 And and a lot of our modern life is about 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:30.399 distancing ourselves from the reality of our waste, from the 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:34.680 reality of our dead things of this nature. So so yeah, 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.159 I think it's it definitely speaks to us on that level. Okay, 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:39.879 maybe we should turn to the question of how, like 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:42.600 how do simple bits of cooking oil and other fat 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.720 turn into these mighty slumbering beasts, the monsters of the 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:49.879 dungeon because it could seem almost magical right that it's 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:52.320 it's it's like this thing has become alive down there. 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:54.800 It is like one of these uh you know, they're 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.960 multiple uh uh you know, I think horror properties where 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.840 some sort of garbage monster come is alive, and it 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:04.560 basically fulfills the same purpose we're talking about here, to 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:08.040 confront us and to uh, you know, to to show 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:11.439 us the horrors of our of of of our you know, 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:15.959 disposable society. But but there's a very but the process 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:18.639 is happening here is not magical. It is you know, 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:20.240 we can we can we can look at what is 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:24.879 happening chemically. Yeah. Uh so obviously there's one extremely simple 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:26.840 way that there are multiple ways here, but there's one 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:30.000 extremely simple way that fat can end up blocking sewer pipes, 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:33.320 and that's by congealing. Like if you ever cooked bacon, 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:35.919 cooked bacon in a pan, what happens, Well, the white 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:39.600 solid fat in the bacon in the animal flesh renders. 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:42.359 It turns into a fluid that runs around in the 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:45.160 pan like water, and it flows, so you can pour 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:47.480 it out, et cetera. You can pour it down the drain. 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.760 But that's only because it's hot. If you take that 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:53.320 bacon grease and you leave it out at room temperature, 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:55.520