Municipalities began using the Ringelmann Chart to measure coal smoke in the early 1900s. The technique, developed by Maximillian Ringelmann of France in the late 1800s, measured the darkness of smoke with four different black grids on a white background, which was placed a distance away from smokestacks for a set time. Smoke control efforts…
Burdon-Sanderson in England in 1871 demonstrated the presence of bacteria in water; and Miquel at Paris in 1880 developed the first exact methods for enumerating them. In 1885, Percy Frankland used Koch’s procedures in a study of London water supplies and in 1887 Plagge and Proskauer reported on the bacterial purification effected by the filters…
Established the “Germ Theory” in 1888
Pasteurization process for beer and milk –1877
Discovered anaerobic life, microbial utilization of oxygen, filterable viruses.
Defined fermentation, and developed rabies and anthrax vaccines and the basis for aseptic surgery.
In 1857, Pasteur returned to the École Normale as director of scientific studies and continued his research on the problem. Notably, on April 20, 1862, he completed his first test of boiling and then cooling wine to kill the souring bacteria, a method of wine preservation (heating) that the Chinese first discovered as far back…
During the 1850s, Ferdinand Carre of France developed a second type of refrigeration machine. In his system, the refrigerant (normally a vapor) is absorbed in a suitable liquid. This solution is heated, driving off the refrigerant as a vapor, which then is condensed. Evaporation of the liquid produces the desired cooling. The refrigerant vapor is…
Labarque in 1825 used calcium hypochlorite for washing mortuaries, hospital wards, and other potenitally contiminated sites. He also reprted that hypochlorites were used succesfully in Paris on infected wounds in burns, and in England for the purification of drinking water. Reference: Graham A. J. Ayliffe,Mary P. English (2003). Hospital Infection: From Miasmas to MRSA Photo:…
Nicolas Appert was a confectioner and chef in Paris from 1784 to 1795. He had great skill with foods and was also familiar with brewing and distillation. He set up a small kitchen in the back of his shop and decided to answer the challenge. For ten years he labored patiently with different foods, cooking…
In France, legislation was passed regarding hours of beginning and stopping work.12
Chlorination of drinking water was only first suggested around the year 1800 by Louis – Bernard Guyton de Morveau (France) and William Cumberland Cruikshank (England). The use of chlorine was introduced to England by William Cruickshank, who used it to purify water in 1800. These initial successes, however, seem to have been short-lived. Some experiments…
During the sixteenth century Louis Savot, a Paris physician, undertook a “scientific” study of smoky chimneys. He suggested significant improvements—narrowing the width of the fire place and requiring a smooth flue so that less air entered the chimney around the sides of the fireplace and creating a stronger draft in the flue. Ducts passed under,…
In France, in 1350, King John II established the first Sanitary Police and this has been considered the commencement of sanitary reform. The ordinance provided that hogs should not be kept in the cities; that streets should be cleansed, and the offal removed; that butchers should not sell meat more than two days old in…
Paris constructed an aqueduct to supply water to the city.
It was fortunate, perhaps, that the first widespread epidemic which threated Europe (after the plaque of Justinian) should have been leprosy. Whether this disease was actually Biblical leprosy in more than doubtful. It bore the same name, however; and this fact made it easier to carry over into thinking of a world dominated by the…