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Stephen Halliday: 2 ideas worth knowing

2 ideas from Stephen Halliday, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

• The smell that built London's sewers

  In the summer of 1858, a heatwave turned the sewage-choked River Thames into a stench so overpowering that Parliament, sitting right beside it, considered relocating. MPs soaked th…

  — Stephen Halliday, The Great Stink of London: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Capital

• A heatwave made the Thames smell so foul that Parliament fled the building

  By the summer of 1858, London was dumping raw sewage straight into the Thames, and an unusually hot July baked it into a stench so overpowering that MPs reportedly held handkerchie…

  — Stephen Halliday, The Great Stink

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