What We Find in the Sewers
Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago
asimov.pressOtherstory
informativeneutral
Debate
20/100
Urban InfrastructureExplorationEnvironment
Key topics
Urban Infrastructure
Exploration
Environment
Discussion Activity
Light discussionFirst comment
4d
Peak period
2
84-90h
Avg / period
1.5
Key moments
- 01Story posted
Aug 25, 2025 at 10:45 AM EDT
4 months ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Aug 28, 2025 at 11:34 PM EDT
4d after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
2 comments in 84-90h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Aug 29, 2025 at 9:10 AM EDT
4 months ago
Step 04
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ID: 45014445Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 11:44:18 AM
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Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.
Its historical coverage of the problem of sewerage and waste disposal is both wide ranging and comprehensive—how early humans spread waste to fertilize crops to Ancient Rome's obsession with cleanliness and its sewer infrastructure through to Dr John Snow, cholera and the shutting off of the Broad St pump and London's Great Sink of 1858 and Joseph Bazalgette's great sewer infrastructure.
The article concludes with modern sewer treatments and sewerage as a resource—the gathering of disease/medical information and the recovering of valuable materials therefrom.
This article is both very well researched and presented and it's well worth the read—or one can listen to the audio stream.
Highly recommended.