London's Killer Smog

Air pollution is another result of the pollution created by the Industrial Revolution. There is a great smog that is slowly constricting the city and anything and everything that lives within. This smog made of gases and fumes admitted from the surrounding industrial buildings is clinging to the city declaring that the sky is to be a dirty yellow-brown. This smog is killing what inhabits it, deaths spiked in 1873 by 40%. As a result of breathing the air of London constantly has made many ill, mostly resulting in death or permanent damage. the smog, I've heard, is sometimes so think that men with horse and carriage has to hop down and lead the horses on foot with a candle in order to warn of their approach through the murk. The smog has not yet lifted and still poisons the lungs of all who breath it. Again as the city develops the smog and its poisons with only worsen and will be a result of many more deaths.                     

Suffering Environment

With all the new factories, mills and machines being built and invented in this great time of The Industrial Revolution there comes the new issue of pollution. Pollution is not a new concept, it has always lingered before the start of The Industrial Revolution, although there has been a massive spike in the amount of pollution floating through the streets of London. As a result of the ever growing urbanisation, new factories, mills, and machines the pollution created by these has introduced new sources of air and water pollution. Water pollution was know on the banks of the Thames, where there were many industrial building and tanneries. Waste from these buildings along with the flow of waste from London's cesspits, polluted the river. By 1844, salmon could no longer be found the river, this was a food source for many that has now vanished because of the effect on the environment that the Industrial Revolution has triggered. This vile river may not inhabit any fish but was still used to provide for people. This then led to great outbreaks of cholera that shook London. To this day not a salmon or any other sort of fish has been spotted. As the city develops the pollution surrounding London will not improve and the pollution will only worsen.  

The amazing sewing machine

After researching the first functional sewer system of London. I am going into the past, into the 1830's. This significant year was the time of one of of the most important inventions ever designed. This great invention is one of most common things of our time, this machine is the Sewing Machine. The Sewing machine was first thought of in the year of 1790 by an English inventor Tomas Saint. Although the first functional sewing machine has not been released until just a couple of hours ago by one Barthelemy Thimonnier. I am heading down the the local craft store, this is where the first sewing machine of this time has been released. As I approach the store there is literately a line one hundred metres long, this is one of the most disable item in the house the lives a woman. The atmosphere is full of eagerness. Exciting whisper twirl in the air. I enter the tiny shop, the shop is bustling. I get my first glance at this desired machine, compared to our modernised machine this apparatus is hardly anything to get excited about, it can only sew a mere straight line according to the demonstration. But this is the machine that change the textile industry forever, this is the machine that altered history. without this machine that i am standing in front of now we would have no clothes, no sheets for our beds we would have nothing.       

The making of the sewer drain

After investigating the Great Sink I am going to further research the modernisation of the under ground sewer system of  London. I am going to the year of 1866. This is the year the first and only Metropolitan board of works was created, where one Joseph Bazalgette was elected chief engineer. It is the mid-19th century London is still suffering from recurring outbursts of cholera. It is thought that this disease was air bound but is was not. The hot summer of 1858 was what caused 'The Great Sink', this together with the frequent occurrence of the disease cholera, gave impetus to legislation enabling the metropolitan board to begin work on sewers and street improvements. By 1866 most of London will connected to a sewer network devised by Joseph Bazalgette. The flow of putrid waste water from old sewers and underground rivers was intercepted, and diverted along new, low-level sewers, built behind embankments on the river front and taken to new treatment works. This great sewer system has dramatically improved the scene of London, as I walk threw the streets that I had not long ago wandered it has improved immensely, it is so much cleaner, the putrid smell of human waste has withdrawn, the deep ruts in the rode have now been covered up with bricks, there are no Dong hills to be seen and over all the faces that I pass are happier and brighter.  

Factories and Mills

There are  multiple factories and mills functioning in this area. I am going to explore the near by Satanic Mill. Numerous factory and mill owners are operating without government regulation, and to often cut corners with safety and health conditions in pursuit of greater profits. Long working hours in stannous and life threatening conditions were usually undertaken by woman or children as they are cheaper to employ. Children are hauled into the working world with little chance for an education or for a life outside the factories or mills. Children are the most desired workers as they are small enough to fit under and around the new machinery, they were the cheapest to employ and they families were grateful for the extra income in these tough times. Children as young as four are employed to work long hours from before sunrise to well after dusk, with one, half and hour break at the most at dinner time. As I enter the mill it has an overriding sink of human breath and sweat. The mills is absolutely packed, people are nearly shoulder to shoulder. The heat is agonizing, it is like a hot, heavy beast sitting of your lungs, it is so hard to breath. Children are rushing around completing tasks given to them. To my left I see a child, only five maybe, climbing into a machine to collect fluff court in the machine. This machine could start up at any time, with this child in it, by the end would be a mere smear on the inside of this massive machine. The safety conditions are of something of a myth in this factory. There are many deaths in these factories and mills due to the lack of safety conditions, but to the owners its just time to get another child of the street and train him or her to do the simple job that the one before had, they nothing more than a worker, a link in the great chain to getting the employer a greater profit                

The Great Stink

I have reached the city of Liverpool, as I walk threw the streets there is an overriding smell of human waste, there are no sewage systems in London therefore people dispose of there waste onto the streets, the ground is a swamp, with puddles two feet deep and a dirty pale brown. The invention of roads has not yet arose, this means that there deep ruts where the carts are pulled threw, these are also filled with the putrid human waste mix. The uncleanliness of the city is obviously greatly overlooked, all this waste is causing great amount  of  air born pollution, water pollution, sickness and diseases. As I walk threw the streets I have noticed many 'Dunghills', this is were multiple people dispose of there waste. These hills give off a horrid aroma, I feel for the people living among these heaps. I have heard stories off the sewage in the storm water drains filling so much that it rises up into peoples basement floorboards and flooding the underneath of people houses. I can't believe the filth that these people live with, we live with such luxuries on Mars. I am now going to assess the rising problem of overcrowding further by entering a house owed by a J.Faraday as it reads on the front door.

Over-crowding

I reach the front door of one J.Faraday, as I enter I get the smell of musky mould and moth balls, but yes, in the mixture of  all the smells of my new surroundings there is the smell of human waste. As walk threw the house and there at least 1 -2 families of around 4-5 people per family, there are only 4 rooms in the upper part of the house, including one bathroom and a kitchen. As I wonder down the long flight of stairs to the basement, there are several mattresses of what appear to be made straw sprawled across the stone floor, there are a further 2-3 families living in this cramped, musty, dark hole. Across the floor there is a thin layer of human waste, as it looks and smells it was not along ago that the waste come through here and flooded these families belongings. These sort of conditions are unhealthy, most houses throughout the industrial side of London are like this, overcrowding is a massive problem and needs to be fixed. As I walk out the front the front door the city is very crowded, there are workers pulling carts full of machine parts and other goods threw the deep ruts in the road, there are the middle class that sit in there horse and cart, peering out their windows at the hustle and bustle surrounding them, people lining up to fetch water for their families and also the beggars sitting in the gutters pleading for money to provide for their families. Over-crowding is a massive problem with the masses of people moving from the country in search of work, the city is growing to quick, there are not enough houses for these families to create a new live in.