Seven wonders of the industrial world. The sewer king / produced and directed by Edward Bazalgette ; BBC.

Format:

Video

Contributor:

Bazalgette, Edward, director, producer.

British Broadcasting Corporation, production company.

Series:

Academic Video Online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bazalgette, Joseph William, Sir, 1819-1891.

Bazalgette, Joseph William.

Sewerage--England--London--History.

Sewerage.

Civil engineering--History.

Civil engineering.

Technological innovations--History.

Technological innovations.

Genre:

Historical reenactments (Television programs)

Physical Description:

1 online resource (49 minutes)

Other Title:

7 wonders of the industrial world

Sewer king

Place of Publication:

London, England : BBC Worldwide, 2003.

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

video file

Summary:

An encounter with the most brilliant pioneers of the industrial age. Recreating their stories of burning ambition, extravagant dreams, passion and rivalry as great minds clashed, this programme delves into the history of seven epic monuments spanning the industrial revolution. Using spectacular CGI, the seven stories that are revealed here are: the SS Great Eastern, the London sewer system, the Bell Rock Lighthouse, the US Transcontinental Railway, the Panama Canal, the Hoover Dam, and the Brooklyn Bridge. In the summer of 1858, while the Great Eastern was being fitted out for her maiden voyage, London was in the grip of a crisis known as the 'Great Stink'. The population had grown rapidly during the first half of the 19th century, yet there had been no provision for sanitation. Three epidemics of cholera had swept through the city, leaving over 30,000 people dead. And sewage was everywhere, piling up in every gully and alleyway, in the cellars of houses in poor districts - and even seeping through cracks in floorboards. Leading engineer Joseph Bazalgette proposed a bold scheme to build proper sewers: 82 miles of sewage superhighway, linked with over 1,000 miles of street sewers, to provide an underground network beneath the city streets. He drove himself to the limits of endurance as he struggled to realize his subterranean vision - a task made particularly difficult by his need to compete with the new underground railway, a network of roads, and emerging overland railway systems. But his grand design for a sewer system did eventually transform the city into the first glittering modern metropolis, setting a standard that was quickly copied the world over.

Participant:

Narrated by Robert Lindsay.

Notes:

Title from resource description page (viewed August 26, 2019).

OCLC:

1119642133