1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:02,840 Speaker 1: Oh man, it seems like no matter where you live, 2 00:00:02,960 --> 00:00:05,440 Speaker 1: there have been days and weeks this summer that have 3 00:00:05,519 --> 00:00:09,920 Speaker 1: been absolutely sweltering. Am I right? But imagine a time 4 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:13,440 Speaker 1: when there was no escaping it, no fans, no air conditioning, 5 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: heat waves that killed thousands of people and livestock. Now 6 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:21,000 Speaker 1: add to that a primitive public sewer system that made 7 00:00:21,440 --> 00:00:25,360 Speaker 1: just breathing hell on earth. I'm Patty Steele. Welcome to 8 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 1: London's Great Stink of eighteen fifty eight. That's next on 9 00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:37,600 Speaker 1: the backstory. We're back with the backstory. Our summers really 10 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:40,159 Speaker 1: seemed to be getting a whole lot hotter. Right. If 11 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:42,600 Speaker 1: you have air conditioning at home and at work, you 12 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:45,640 Speaker 1: find yourself kind of darting from place to place to 13 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:48,440 Speaker 1: stay out of the heat. It's really not even pleasant 14 00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:50,479 Speaker 1: to sit by a pool or at the beach in 15 00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:55,080 Speaker 1: this sultry, steamy heat. Right, But imagine a time when 16 00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:58,840 Speaker 1: nobody anywhere had any air conditioning at home or work, 17 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:03,440 Speaker 1: none in store, restaurants, theaters to escape for just a 18 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:07,520 Speaker 1: little while into public ac and not even any electric fans. 19 00:01:08,319 --> 00:01:13,840 Speaker 1: Just heat, relentless heat, with no cooling breezes for relief 20 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:16,720 Speaker 1: or even to blow away a bit of the Great 21 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:21,280 Speaker 1: Stink which battered London in eighteen fifty eight. Now, heat 22 00:01:21,319 --> 00:01:25,440 Speaker 1: waves have tortured us for centuries. Talk about a rough patch. 23 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:29,160 Speaker 1: The nineteen thirty six North American heat wave had followed 24 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:31,840 Speaker 1: a bitterly cold winter, so nobody was prepared for that 25 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:33,920 Speaker 1: kind of heat. We were in the thick of the 26 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:38,440 Speaker 1: Great Depression. There'd been years of drought and endless blinding 27 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:41,960 Speaker 1: dust storms, but there was even more to endure when 28 00:01:41,959 --> 00:01:45,200 Speaker 1: we were hit with all time high temperatures throughout the 29 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:48,320 Speaker 1: entire middle of the country, almost from coast to coast. 30 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:52,520 Speaker 1: Some areas, including as far north as North Dakota, hit 31 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:56,160 Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty degrees, and the heat swept up 32 00:01:56,200 --> 00:02:00,000 Speaker 1: into Canada as well. Add to it, the Midwest seat 33 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:04,720 Speaker 1: years long grasshopper infestation, which meant those broiled lifeless bug 34 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:08,919 Speaker 1: bodies started raining down from the sky. In New York City, 35 00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:11,720 Speaker 1: which hit a record high of one hundred and six degrees, 36 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:16,760 Speaker 1: hundreds of seamstresses at clothing factories, which were already notorious 37 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 1: for terrible working conditions, fainted right onto their sewing machines. Detroit, 38 00:02:21,880 --> 00:02:25,120 Speaker 1: one of the worst hit cities, saw doctors and nurses 39 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:29,880 Speaker 1: literally collapsing while treating patients, and the morgues were overrun 40 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:33,600 Speaker 1: with bodies by summer's and more than six thousand people 41 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:36,919 Speaker 1: had died from heat. Now let's go back even further. 42 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:39,960 Speaker 1: It's New York City and the Great New York heat 43 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:43,720 Speaker 1: Wave of eighteen ninety six. Now, by that time, New 44 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:46,960 Speaker 1: York already had three million residents, and a lot of 45 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,800 Speaker 1: them were living in the misery of the notoriously cramped 46 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:54,400 Speaker 1: and stifling tenements of the Lower East Side and other 47 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:58,239 Speaker 1: poor neighborhoods. During a ten day heat wave, almost fifteen 48 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:02,200 Speaker 1: hundred New Yorkers died after roasting in their jam packed, 49 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:05,760 Speaker 1: dark and dirty rooms. A city had banned folks from 50 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:09,240 Speaker 1: sleeping in the public parks, so those living in tenements 51 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:12,239 Speaker 1: tried to find a breath of fresh air by hanging 52 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 1: out and even sleeping on rooftops, fire escapes, and piers 53 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,160 Speaker 1: along the river. But get this, A lot of the 54 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:23,040 Speaker 1: heat wave casualties happened when people fell asleep and rolled 55 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:25,520 Speaker 1: off the side of the building or the peer and 56 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:29,640 Speaker 1: plummeted to their deaths. Others died from heatstroke. More than 57 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:32,760 Speaker 1: a thousand horses also died in the streets, adding to 58 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:36,280 Speaker 1: the misery. Now, the problem is the city government wasn't 59 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 1: really addressing the disaster, but one relatively unknown official became 60 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:44,440 Speaker 1: a hero, and what he did launched his political career. 61 00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:48,360 Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt was the city's police commissioner, and he had 62 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:52,000 Speaker 1: his police force begin to distribute free ice into tenement 63 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:55,720 Speaker 1: neighborhoods and also to provide ambulance service for the sick. 64 00:03:56,320 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: Some historians believe that the heat wave and his response 65 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:04,040 Speaker 1: helped propel him to the White House. Then another East 66 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:07,480 Speaker 1: Coast heat wave hid in nineteen eleven, and it literally 67 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:10,840 Speaker 1: drove people crazy. In New York City, one young guy 68 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: leaped off a pier and into the water after hours 69 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:17,920 Speaker 1: of trying to nap but getting no rest. As he jumped, 70 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:21,640 Speaker 1: he yelled, I can't stand this any longer. Meantime, up 71 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:25,000 Speaker 1: in Harlem, an overheated worker tried to throw himself in 72 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:27,480 Speaker 1: front of a train. Cops had to force him into 73 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:31,200 Speaker 1: a straight jacket. Up and down the East Coast railways 74 00:04:31,279 --> 00:04:34,640 Speaker 1: buckled in the heat, horses collapsed in the streets and 75 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:38,640 Speaker 1: rotted in the sun, and one Connecticut newspaper said the 76 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:42,320 Speaker 1: tar surface on some streets is boiling like syrup in 77 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:45,440 Speaker 1: the sun. They said people went mad in the heat, 78 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:49,000 Speaker 1: with the New York Tribune reporting one drunken fool, crazed 79 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:51,880 Speaker 1: by the heat, attacked a policeman with a meat cleaver. 80 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:55,480 Speaker 1: And finally we get to a heat wave for the ages, 81 00:04:55,839 --> 00:04:59,520 Speaker 1: and the one with the most evocative name London's Great 82 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:04,159 Speaker 1: Stink of eighteen fifty eight. Ew, what is that about? Well, 83 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:07,120 Speaker 1: it was July of eighteen fifty eight and the heat 84 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,880 Speaker 1: was turned up to historic levels in London one hundred 85 00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:14,360 Speaker 1: degrees in the shade and out in direct sun. Temperatures 86 00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:18,040 Speaker 1: hit as high as one hundred and eighteen degrees in London. 87 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:21,360 Speaker 1: But it wasn't just the horrific heat. It was also 88 00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:25,160 Speaker 1: the notorious stench that filled the air. It seems most 89 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:29,080 Speaker 1: Londoners had recently given up their chamber pots for those 90 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:33,000 Speaker 1: brand new water closets or flushing toilets. Now, the problem 91 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:37,360 Speaker 1: is the antiquated sewer system couldn't handle all the extra 92 00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:41,440 Speaker 1: water and what went with it. Three million Londoners were 93 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:45,200 Speaker 1: serviced by just two hundred thousand ancient cesspits, and they 94 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:49,400 Speaker 1: were overflowing straight into the city's main river, the Thames. 95 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:53,440 Speaker 1: As well as its tributaries. No rain, all that heat 96 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:57,680 Speaker 1: and all that Effluvian's nice name for it encouraged the 97 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:01,680 Speaker 1: growth of tons of bacteria. And the smell was god awful. 98 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:04,880 Speaker 1: It was so noxious that in the House of Commons, 99 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:07,480 Speaker 1: in order to get any work done, they had to 100 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:11,200 Speaker 1: hang sheets soaked in chloride of lime from the windows 101 00:06:11,440 --> 00:06:14,560 Speaker 1: to try to blunt some of the smell. On top 102 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:17,880 Speaker 1: of that, poor neighborhoods still that they're drinking water from 103 00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:22,040 Speaker 1: the Thames, and thousands died that summer from cholera, typhoid 104 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:26,080 Speaker 1: and other diseases. In fact, one newspaper said, gentility of 105 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:30,240 Speaker 1: speech is at an end. It stinks, and whosoever Inhales 106 00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:33,520 Speaker 1: this stink can never forget it, and can count himself 107 00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:37,159 Speaker 1: lucky if he even lives to remember it. Finally, the 108 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:42,560 Speaker 1: public outcry convinced Parliament to overhaul the city's antiquated sewer system. 109 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:47,359 Speaker 1: Joseph Baziljet, a brilliant civil engineer, designed a network of 110 00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:52,240 Speaker 1: drains and actually spectacularly beautiful pumping stations that were a 111 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:57,000 Speaker 1: technological marvel, able to handle four hundred and twenty million 112 00:06:57,080 --> 00:07:00,599 Speaker 1: gallons of liquid waste a day. As the system was 113 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:05,000 Speaker 1: put into place neighborhood by neighborhood cholera in those areas 114 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:07,920 Speaker 1: that got them first saw a huge drop in the disease, 115 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:13,240 Speaker 1: finally convincing the scientific world that filthy water, not air 116 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:16,080 Speaker 1: or miasma as they called it, was to blame for 117 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:19,480 Speaker 1: the spread. It took almost twenty years to finish the 118 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:23,640 Speaker 1: new system, but it virtually ended cholera epidemics in London 119 00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:28,360 Speaker 1: and it's still in use today. Coincidentally, cholera is probably 120 00:07:28,440 --> 00:07:31,960 Speaker 1: what killed Abe Lincoln's little boy Willie in eighteen sixty 121 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:35,400 Speaker 1: two because he too used to play in the river, 122 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:39,160 Speaker 1: the Potomac River in that case, which also overflowed the 123 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:43,120 Speaker 1: dead bodies of animals and the effluvians of the sewer 124 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:46,160 Speaker 1: system in Washington. So at the end of the day, 125 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:49,680 Speaker 1: what's really interesting is you can see that these disasters 126 00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:54,080 Speaker 1: actually propelled forward thinking and the development of new technology 127 00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:58,640 Speaker 1: to deal with what Mother Nature delivers, including a great stink. 128 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:01,880 Speaker 1: I hope you're in enjoying the Backstory with Patty Steele. 129 00:08:02,120 --> 00:08:06,440 Speaker 1: Follow or subscribe for free to get new episodes delivered automatically, 130 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:08,520 Speaker 1: and feel free to dm me if you have a 131 00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:11,400 Speaker 1: story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty 132 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:18,240 Speaker 1: Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. 133 00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:22,760 Speaker 1: The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis 134 00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:27,040 Speaker 1: Duran Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. 135 00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:30,920 Speaker 1: Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday 136 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:33,440 Speaker 1: and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with 137 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:37,480 Speaker 1: comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty 138 00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:41,000 Speaker 1: Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening 139 00:08:41,040 --> 00:08:44,320 Speaker 1: to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history 140 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:46,160 Speaker 1: you didn't know you needed to know.