1830-1890

The Industrial Revolution


 * THEME//** The Industrial Revolution: people were moving away from their farms and into the cities seeking new employment because of technological advances which created new job opportunities. Also, it created problems in the cities from overpopulation such as sewage problems, air pollution and lots of smog from the new factories and deforestation from all the new factories and plants.

http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/mmontgomery/world_history/industrialism/chadwick.htm
 * 1842 //** Edwin Chadwick writes The Sanitary Condition of the Laboring Population of Great Britain. It is the first scientific report that links the high rates of infectious diseases and child mortality to the unsanitary conditions and polluted drinking water in the city.


 * 1851 //** The first formal international health conference was held in Paris and after several more meetings was turned into a permanent international health organization later on in 1907 that dealt with transferring information to the member nations to study and help develop better sanitary conventions and quarantine regulations on shipping and train travel. Later, this organization was included into the World Health Organization (WHO).


 * 1860 //** Professor Augustine Mouchot of Lycee de Tours, France said “One cannot help coming to the conclusion that it would be prudent and wise not to fall asleep regarding this quasi security. Eventually industry will not longer find in Europe the resources to satisfy its prodigious expansion. Coal will undoubtedly be used up. What will industry do then?” He then built a solar energy machine in 1874 with a collector with 54 square feet or reflecting surface for alcohol distillation, which worked at the rate of 5 gallons per minute. This machine could also power a ½ hp motor and develop 75 psi of steam.


 * 1881 //** Chicago is the first American city to create a local law regulating smoke discharges. This movement is later followed in the same year by Cincinnati, Pittsburgh in 1892 and St. Louis in 1893. This marked the beginning of a new more health safety-conscious society.


 * 1885 //** Finally a method of filtrating water is discovered by a British scientist that slowly filtering water through sand reduces bacteria by 98%. Around the same time in America, it was found that slow sand filters could also remove typhoid germs in river water. This led to more advances and by the 1900s, dozens of cities in American and Britain had these filters. In 1905, copper sulfate, chlorine and ozone treatments were found to kill typhoid and cholera bacteria and in 1908, Jersey City in America opened the first continuous chlorination system, which now allowed river water to become relatively safe for human consumption.