THE THAMES RAN FOUL: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London sweltered in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that scorched the metropolis. An even more detestable force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial effluents had transformed London's lifeblood into a stench. The stench was all-consuming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and satu

On a blustery January in 1919, disaster unfolded Boston. A massive tank filled with sticky, sweet molasses ruptured sending a tidal wave of the thick liquid crashing through the streets. The power was catastrophic, flattening buildings and trapping residents in a treacly soup. Dozens of people were lost their lives, and many more suffered. Author