THE THAMES RAN FOUL: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London breathed 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 stench. The stench was overwhelming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and infuse

On a blustery January in 1919, disaster befell Boston. A massive reservoir filled with sticky, sweet molasses ruptured sending a tidal wave of the thick liquid flowing through the streets. The power was catastrophic, crushing buildings and entombing people in a gooey mire. Hundreds of people were lost their lives, and many more were wounded. Auth