A RIVER RUNS PUTRID: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London sweltered in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that parched the metropolis. An even more unpleasant force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial discharges had transformed London's lifeblood into a foul-smelling mire. The stench was overwhelming, a miasma that clung to every cobblesto

On a blustery afternoon in 1919, disaster befell Boston. A massive reservoir filled with sticky, sweet molasses gave way sending a wall of of the thick liquid rushing through the streets. The impact was catastrophic, smashing buildings and burying citizens in a treacly mass. Hundreds of people were lost their lives, and many more were wounded. Th