1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:02,960 Speaker 1: Oh man, it seems like no matter where you live, 2 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:05,520 Speaker 1: there have been days and weeks this summer that have 3 00:00:05,559 --> 00:00:09,960 Speaker 1: been absolutely sweltering. Am I right? But imagine a time 4 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:13,480 Speaker 1: when there was no escaping it, no fans, no air conditioning, 5 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:17,759 Speaker 1: heat waves that killed thousands of people and livestock. Now 6 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:21,079 Speaker 1: add to that a primitive public sewer system that made 7 00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:25,439 Speaker 1: just breathing hell on earth. I'm Patty Steele. Welcome to 8 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:29,600 Speaker 1: London's Great Stink of eighteen fifty eight. That's next on 9 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:37,319 Speaker 1: the backstory. We're back with the backstory. Our summers really 10 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:39,919 Speaker 1: seemed to be getting a whole lot hotter. Right. If 11 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:42,360 Speaker 1: you have air conditioning at home and at work, you 12 00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:45,400 Speaker 1: find yourself kind of darting from place to place to 13 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:48,240 Speaker 1: stay out of the heat. It's really not even pleasant 14 00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:50,239 Speaker 1: to sit by a pool or at the beach in 15 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:54,840 Speaker 1: this sultry, steamy heat. Right, But imagine a time when 16 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:58,600 Speaker 1: nobody anywhere had any air conditioning at home or work, 17 00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:03,200 Speaker 1: None in stores, restaurants, theaters to escape for just a 18 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:07,280 Speaker 1: little while into public ac and not even any electric fans. 19 00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:13,560 Speaker 1: Just heat, relentless heat, with no cooling breezes for relief 20 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:16,480 Speaker 1: or even to blow away a bit of the Great 21 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:25,400 Speaker 1: Stink which battered London in eighteen fifty eight. Now, heat 22 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:29,560 Speaker 1: waves have tortured us for centuries. Talk about a rough patch. 23 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:33,280 Speaker 1: The nineteen thirty six North American heat wave had followed 24 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:35,960 Speaker 1: a bitterly cold winter, so nobody was prepared for that 25 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:38,039 Speaker 1: kind of heat. We were in the thick of the 26 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:42,559 Speaker 1: Great Depression. There'd been years of drought and endless blinding 27 00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:46,080 Speaker 1: dust storms, but there was even more to endure when 28 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:49,320 Speaker 1: we were hit with all time high temperatures throughout the 29 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:52,400 Speaker 1: entire middle of the country, almost from coast to coast. 30 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:56,640 Speaker 1: Some areas, including as far north as North Dakota, hit 31 00:01:56,760 --> 00:02:00,320 Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty degrees, and the heat swept up 32 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:04,440 Speaker 1: into Canada as well. Add to it the Midwest year's 33 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:09,280 Speaker 1: long grasshopper infestation, which meant those broiled lifeless bug bodies 34 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:13,040 Speaker 1: started raining down from the sky. In New York City, 35 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:15,840 Speaker 1: which hit a record high of one hundred and six degrees, 36 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:20,880 Speaker 1: hundreds of seamstresses at clothing factories, which were already notorious 37 00:02:20,919 --> 00:02:25,840 Speaker 1: for terrible working conditions, fainted right onto their sewing machines. Detroit, 38 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:29,240 Speaker 1: one of the worst hit cities, saw doctors and nurses 39 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:34,000 Speaker 1: literally collapsing while treating patients, and the morgues were overrun 40 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:37,720 Speaker 1: with bodies. By summer's end, more than six thousand people 41 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:41,040 Speaker 1: had died from heat. Now, let's go back even further. 42 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:44,040 Speaker 1: It's New York City and the Great New York heat 43 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:47,840 Speaker 1: Wave of eighteen ninety six. Now, by that time, New 44 00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:51,080 Speaker 1: York already had three million residents, and a lot of 45 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:54,919 Speaker 1: them were living in the misery of the notoriously cramped 46 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:58,560 Speaker 1: and stifling tenements of the Lower East Side and other 47 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 1: poor neighborhoods. A ten day heat wave, almost fifteen hundred 48 00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:06,760 Speaker 1: New Yorkers died after roasting in their jam packed, dark 49 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:10,320 Speaker 1: and dirty rooms. The city had banned folks from sleeping 50 00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:13,920 Speaker 1: in the public parks, so those living in tenements tried 51 00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:16,600 Speaker 1: to find a breath of fresh air by hanging out 52 00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:20,639 Speaker 1: and even sleeping on rooftops, fire escapes, and piers along 53 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:23,480 Speaker 1: the river. But yet this a lot of the heat 54 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:27,399 Speaker 1: wave casualties happened when people fell asleep and rolled off 55 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:30,080 Speaker 1: the side of the building or the peer and plummet 56 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:33,840 Speaker 1: into their deaths. Others died from heatstroke. More than a 57 00:03:33,919 --> 00:03:38,320 Speaker 1: thousand horses also died in the streets, adding to the misery. Now, 58 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:41,840 Speaker 1: the problem is the city government wasn't really addressing the disaster, 59 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:46,480 Speaker 1: but one relatively unknown official became a hero, and what 60 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:50,360 Speaker 1: he did launched his political career. Theodore Roosevelt was the 61 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,680 Speaker 1: city's police commissioner, and he had his police force begin 62 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:57,720 Speaker 1: to distribute free ice into tenement neighborhoods and also to 63 00:03:57,760 --> 00:04:02,320 Speaker 1: provide ambulance service for the sick. Some historians believe that 64 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:05,560 Speaker 1: the heat wave and his response helped propel him to 65 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:09,320 Speaker 1: the White House. Then another East Coast heat wave hid 66 00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:13,400 Speaker 1: in nineteen eleven, and it literally drove people crazy. In 67 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: New York City, one young guy leaped off a pier 68 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 1: and into the water after hours of trying to nap 69 00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:22,719 Speaker 1: but getting no rest. As he jumped, he yelled, I 70 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:26,600 Speaker 1: can't stand this any longer. Meantime, up in Harlem, an 71 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:29,919 Speaker 1: overheated worker tried to throw himself in front of a train. 72 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:33,400 Speaker 1: Cops had to force him into a strait jacket. Up 73 00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:36,359 Speaker 1: and down the East Coast railways buckled in the heat. 74 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:39,840 Speaker 1: Horses collapsed in the streets and rotted in the sun, 75 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:43,960 Speaker 1: and one Connecticut newspaper said the tar surface on some 76 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:47,720 Speaker 1: streets is boiling like syrup in the sun. They said 77 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:50,279 Speaker 1: people went mad in the heat, with the New York 78 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:54,279 Speaker 1: Tribune reporting one drunken fool, crazed by the heat, attacked 79 00:04:54,279 --> 00:04:58,039 Speaker 1: a policeman with a meat cleaver. And finally we get 80 00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:00,640 Speaker 1: to a heat wave for the ages, the one with 81 00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:06,360 Speaker 1: the most evocative name London's Great Stink of eighteen fifty eight. Hew, 82 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:09,600 Speaker 1: what is that about? Well, it was July of eighteen 83 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:12,800 Speaker 1: fifty eight and the heat was turned up to historic 84 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,480 Speaker 1: levels in London one hundred degrees in the shade and 85 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:19,440 Speaker 1: out in direct sun. Temperatures hit as high as one 86 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:23,440 Speaker 1: hundred and eighteen degrees in London. But it wasn't just 87 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:27,240 Speaker 1: the horrific heat. It was also the notorious stench that 88 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:31,240 Speaker 1: filled the air. It seems most Londoners had recently given 89 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:34,799 Speaker 1: up their chamber pots for those brand new water closets 90 00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:38,960 Speaker 1: or flushing toilets. Now, the problem is the antiquated sewer 91 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:42,760 Speaker 1: system couldn't handle all the extra water and what went 92 00:05:42,839 --> 00:05:46,520 Speaker 1: with it. Three million Londoners were serviced by just two 93 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:51,480 Speaker 1: hundred thousand ancient cesspits, and they were overflowing straight into 94 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:55,320 Speaker 1: the city's main river, the Thames, as well as its tributaries, 95 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:59,880 Speaker 1: no rain, all that heat and all that Effluvians nice 96 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:03,440 Speaker 1: name for it encouraged the growth of tons of bacteria. 97 00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:07,560 Speaker 1: And the smell was god awful. It was so noxious 98 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:09,920 Speaker 1: that in the House of Commons, in order to get 99 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:13,159 Speaker 1: any work done, they had to hang sheets soaked in 100 00:06:13,240 --> 00:06:16,719 Speaker 1: chloride of lime from the windows to try to blunt 101 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:20,160 Speaker 1: some of the smell. On top of that, poor neighborhoods 102 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:23,800 Speaker 1: still that they're drinking water from the Thames, and thousands 103 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:28,080 Speaker 1: died that summer from cholera, typhoid and other diseases. In fact, 104 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:31,479 Speaker 1: one newspaper said, gentility of speech is at an end. 105 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:36,400 Speaker 1: It stinks, and whosoever Inhales this stink can never forget it, 106 00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:39,200 Speaker 1: and can count himself lucky if he even lives to 107 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:44,280 Speaker 1: remember it. Finally, the public outcry convinced Parliament to overhaul 108 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:49,960 Speaker 1: the city's antiquated sewer system. Joseph Baziljet, a brilliant civil engineer, 109 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:55,000 Speaker 1: designed a network of drains and actually spectacularly beautiful pumping 110 00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:59,400 Speaker 1: stations that were a technological marvel, able to handle four 111 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:03,080 Speaker 1: hundred in twenty million gallons of liquid waste a day. 112 00:07:03,839 --> 00:07:07,360 Speaker 1: As the system was put into place, neighborhood by neighborhood, 113 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:10,680 Speaker 1: cholera in those areas that got them first saw a 114 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:15,120 Speaker 1: huge drop in the disease, finally convincing the scientific world 115 00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:19,320 Speaker 1: that filthy water, not air or miasma as they called it, 116 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:22,680 Speaker 1: was to blame for the spread. It took almost twenty 117 00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:26,000 Speaker 1: years to finish the new system, but it virtually ended 118 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:31,040 Speaker 1: cholera epidemics in London and it's still in use today. Coincidentally, 119 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:34,760 Speaker 1: cholera is probably what killed Abe Lincoln's little boy Willie 120 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty two because he too used to play 121 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:41,880 Speaker 1: in the river, the Potomac River in that case, which 122 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:46,600 Speaker 1: also overflowed the dead bodies of animals and the effluvians 123 00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:49,880 Speaker 1: of the sewer system in Washington. So at the end 124 00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:52,640 Speaker 1: of the day, what's really interesting is you can see 125 00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:57,000 Speaker 1: that these disasters actually propelled forward thinking and the development 126 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:00,880 Speaker 1: of new technology to deal with what mother needs delivers, 127 00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:12,680 Speaker 1: including a great stink. I hope you're enjoying the backstory 128 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:16,280 Speaker 1: with Patty Steele. Follow or subscribe for free to get 129 00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:19,600 Speaker 1: new episodes delivered automatically, and feel free to DM me 130 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:21,320 Speaker 1: if you have a story you'd like me to cover 131 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:25,840 Speaker 1: On Facebook It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. 132 00:08:27,960 --> 00:08:32,760 Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, 133 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:36,800 Speaker 1: the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer 134 00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:40,160 Speaker 1: is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new 135 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:43,719 Speaker 1: episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out 136 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:47,199 Speaker 1: to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram 137 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:50,440 Speaker 1: at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. 138 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:53,800 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the 139 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:56,800 Speaker 1: pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.