Clean Water and Edward Frankland - American Chemical Society · 2013-05-08 · years, the resolute...
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6 ChemMatters, OCTOBER 2002 C hem H istory From Prometheans in the Lab by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne Copyright © 2001 by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne. Reprinted by permission of the McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. A s six major epidemics of cholera swept the globe during the 19th century, fecally con- taminated drinking water killed millions of people. For more than 30 of those terror-filled years, the resolute courage of one chemist, Edward Frankland, protected the public health. Edward Frankland believed that water was guilty until proven innocent, and he condemned tainted water with the righteous conviction of a law-and- order prosecutor. As the illegitimate son of a rich lawyer and a chambermaid, however, Frankland had to hide his origins. So he is almost unknown today, although during his lifetime he was one of Britain’s most important chemists. Frankland discovered the fundamental principle of valency—the combining power of atoms to form com- pounds. He gave the chemical “bond” its name, and popular- ized the notation we use today for writing chemical formulas. He codiscovered helium, helped found synthetic organic and structural chemistry, and was the father of organometallic chemistry. He was also the first person to thoroughly analyze the gases from different types of coal, and—dieters take note—the first to measure the calories in food. In the 1860s, Frankland had just turned his attention to reforming science education in Britain when London fell prey to the epidemic that had been sweeping Europe—cholera. The disease causes vomiting, fever, and profuse, watery diarrhea. Half of all people with severe and untreated cholera die of dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. A total of six cholera pandemics—all now thought to have originated in Bangladesh—circled the world during the 19th century. For 50 years, there were never more than six years of relief between the end of one pandemic and the beginning of another. Responsible for an estimated 20,000 deaths in England alone, the epidemic prompted Queen Vic- toria’s personal physician to remove the handle from the pol- luted Broad Street pump in London in the first recorded, appropriate measure to prevent waterborne disease. Cities were particularly easy prey for cholera, as urban- ization and industrialization polluted water supplies. Although London’s water was the most notorious, it was probably not the worst. And although cities in the United States were late to industri- alize, they too had problems as cities grew and the middle classes demanded more water for bathtubs, showers, and toilets. Chicago, for example, used Lake Michigan as both a water reservoir and a sewage dump. Disease and contagion were already widely associated with decaying human and animal waste when Frankland took over as London’s water consultant in 1865 and as virtually the only working member of the Rivers’ Pollution Commis- sion in 1868. Little was known about clean water. Although some experts thought that decaying matter directly caused disease or indirectly nurtured disease-causing microbes, others regarded feces-rich water as no more than unaccept- ably disgusting. Until the German bacteriologist Robert Koch identified the cholera bacillus in 1883, no one knew how the disease spread from human feces to drinking water to human victim and back again. As the disease devastated cities, clean water issues threatened to tear British society apart. Arguing for “the greatest good for the greatest number”, liberals demanded government action. In contrast, industrialists and Parliament argued that government should not interfere with business, even when the public health was at risk. No one objected to pollution in general or to uncontrolled urbanization and industrialization, but terrified of cholera, people demanded sanitary water. Clean Water and Edward Frankland In 19th century Britain, Frankland was a strong voice—often the only voice—for clean water. PHOTO AND ILLUSTRATION FROM ACS ART ARCHIVE FILE www.chemistry.org/education/chemmatters.html
Transcript of Clean Water and Edward Frankland - American Chemical Society · 2013-05-08 · years, the resolute...
6 ChemMatters, OCTOBER 2002
ChemHistory
From Prometheans in the Lab by Sharon Bertsch McGrayneCopyright © 2001 by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne.Reprinted by permission of the McGraw-Hill Companies.All rights reserved.
A s six major epidemics of cholera swept theglobe during the 19th century, fecally con-taminated drinking water killed millions of
people. For more than 30 of those terror-filledyears, the resolute courage of one chemist, EdwardFrankland, protected the public health.
Edward Frankland believed that water was guiltyuntil proven innocent, and he condemned taintedwater with the righteous conviction of a law-and-order prosecutor. As the illegitimate son of a richlawyer and a chambermaid, however, Frankland had to hidehis origins. So he is almost unknown today, although duringhis lifetime he was one of Britain’s most important chemists.
Frankland discovered the fundamental principle ofvalency—the combining power of atoms to form com-pounds. He gave the chemical “bond” its name, and popular-ized the notation we use today for writing chemical formulas.He codiscovered helium, helped found synthetic organic andstructural chemistry, and was the father of organometallicchemistry. He was also the first person to thoroughly analyzethe gases from different types of coal, and—dieters takenote—the first to measure the calories in food.
In the 1860s, Frankland had just turned his attention toreforming science education in Britain when London fell preyto the epidemic that had been sweeping Europe—cholera.The disease causes vomiting, fever, and profuse, waterydiarrhea. Half of all people with severe and untreated choleradie of dehydration and electrolyte imbalance.
A total of six cholera pandemics—all now thought tohave originated in Bangladesh—circled the world during the19th century. For 50 years, there were never more than sixyears of relief between the end of one pandemic and thebeginning of another. Responsible for an estimated 20,000deaths in England alone, the epidemic prompted Queen Vic-toria’s personal physician to remove the handle from the pol-luted Broad Street pump in London in the first recorded,appropriate measure to prevent waterborne disease.
Cities were particularly easy prey for cholera, as urban-
ization andindustrialization polluted water supplies. Although London’swater was the most notorious, it was probably not the worst.And although cities in the United States were late to industri-alize, they too had problems as cities grew and the middleclasses demanded more water for bathtubs, showers, andtoilets. Chicago, for example, used Lake Michigan as both awater reservoir and a sewage dump.
Disease and contagion were already widely associatedwith decaying human and animal waste when Frankland tookover as London’s water consultant in 1865 and as virtuallythe only working member of the Rivers’ Pollution Commis-sion in 1868. Little was known about clean water. Althoughsome experts thought that decaying matter directly causeddisease or indirectly nurtured disease-causing microbes,others regarded feces-rich water as no more than unaccept-ably disgusting. Until the German bacteriologist Robert Kochidentified the cholera bacillus in 1883, no one knew how thedisease spread from human feces to drinking water tohuman victim and back again.
As the disease devastated cities, clean water issuesthreatened to tear British society apart. Arguing for “thegreatest good for the greatest number”, liberals demandedgovernment action. In contrast, industrialists and Parliamentargued that government should not interfere with business,even when the public health was at risk. No one objected topollution in general or to uncontrolled urbanization andindustrialization, but terrified of cholera, people demandedsanitary water.
Clean Water andEdward Frankland
In 19th century Britain,Frankland was a strongvoice—often the onlyvoice—for cleanwater.
PHOTO AND ILLUSTRATION FROM ACS ART ARCHIVE FILE
www.chemistry.org/education/chemmatters.html
For 30 years, Frankland was a strongvoice—often the only voice—for clean water.Unfortunately, no one knew for sure what cleanwater was. Frankland staked out a radical posi-tion: whatever the deadly agents were, they werealmost certainly introduced into water bysewage, so any trace of sewage raised a red flag.He became convinced later that some of themicroscopic bacteria in water probably causedfatal diseases.
Frankland approached the problem as achemist. He devised sensitive new techniquesfor determining the amount of organic nitrogenin water samples. As a working hypothesis, heassumed that the organic nitrogen originated insewage or manure. Previous methods hadunderestimated the amount of ammonia andurea, the main nitrogen-rich components of rawsewage.
Frankland’s method was laborious andexpensive. It took other chemists six months tolearn. State-of-the-art science for the times, hismethods erred on the side of caution. In widelypublished, monthly reports to the government,Frankland ran horrifying tables that comparedthe pure well water sold by one of London’swater companies with the nitrogen-tainted riverwater sold by seven other companies.
Soon Frankland was the world’s leadingauthority on water issues. During the 1870s and1880s, Frankland and his assistants conductedmore than 11,000 analyses of water for clientsfrom Asia, South America, India, and Europe.He worked for water companies, gas compa-nies, brick works, breweries, copper mines,hospitals, asylums, schools, mansions of thelanded gentry, and Buckingham Palace.
He stressed that water’s appearanceshould not be used as an indication of its safety.“The other day, a gentleman brought to me twosamples of well water for examination. Ireported both as exhibiting great previoussewage contamination; he protested that it wasimpossible as the waters were bright andsparkling … a week later, he informed me thatthe source of contamination had been discov-ered. One of the wells was situated close to a
large cesspool; the other received the drainagefrom a dog kennel.”
Communities everywhere disregardedFrankland’s advice to treat sewage by spreadingit on farmland. Because sewage treatment wasexpensive, communities concentrated not ontreating their sewage, but on transporting itelsewhere. In saving themselves, they contami-nated water supplies downstream.
Unlike many of his competitors, Franklandrelied on experiment rather than speculation.When another analyst declared that sewagewould be purified after it flowed 7 miles down-stream, Frankland countered with his findings:“I find that percolation through 5 feet of gravellysoil removes much more organic impurity fromsewage water than does a flow of 50 miles in ariver at a rate of one mile per hour.”
After Koch’s momentous discovery of thecholera bacillus in 1883, cheap and effectivetreatment of sewage became possible. The civilengineering of water and sewerage mains,reservoirs, sand filtration, and chlorinationmade waterborne diseases a thing of the past inmuch of North America and Western Europe.
Chlorine, introduced to Lon-don’s water during a typhoid epi-demic in 1905, was particularlyimportant. Chlorine is not onlycheap, but it also lasts longenough to destroy any pathogensthat leak into the water throughcracks in pipes.
The use of chlorine to treat watersaved countless lives. However, late inthe 20th century, after scientistslearned how to identify tiny traces ofchemicals in huge samples, it wasfound that chlorine bleach producessmall amounts of chloroform, a sus-
pected liver carcinogen in humans, and dioxin, ahighly toxic hydrocarbon.
Today, paper bleaching mills and manyEuropean water systems are replacing chlorinewith other chemicals such as ozone and chlo-rine dioxide. Compared to chlorine, these com-pounds are more expensive, faster acting, andmore rapidly decomposed.
More than a century after Frankland’simportant discoveries, scientists led by Rita R.Colwell, current director of the National ScienceFoundation in Arlington, VA, demonstrated thatcrustaceans infested with the cholera bacillusflourish in plankton blooms in warm, brackishcoastal and inland waters fertilized with organicnutrients. During a plankton bloom, drinkingone glass of untreated water can give a personcholera. In the late 1990s, scientists discoveredthat simply filtering water through fabricremoves most of the Cyclops crustaceans thatharbor deadly cholera.
Cholera was, and is, predominantly a dis-ease of the poor. An official investigation of the1832 cholera epidemic in Paris showed that upto 53 out of every 1000 inhabitants in the poor-
est neighborhoods died,compared to only 8 per1000 in wealthy areas.Despite all advances inscience and technology,the sewage-contami-nated water that ravagedthe 19th century is still ascourge of poor, devel-oping countries at thebeginning of the 21stcentury. Fully 25% ofthe population in devel-oping nations still drink
dilute sewage.
ChemMatters, OCTOBER 2002 7
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Prometheans in the Lab: Chemistry and the Making of the Modern World tells the dramatic stories of ninechemists whose discoveries shaped the Western world. Their lives demonstrate the benefits and costs oftechnology, the rise of the environmental movement, and science’s growing ability to identify and solvepollution problems. Other scientists profiled in the book are Nicolas Leblanc (cheap soap); William HenryPerkin (cheap dyes); Norbert Rillieux (cheap sugar); Fritz Haber (fertilizer and poison gas); ThomasMidgley, Jr. (leaded gasoline and safe refrigeration); Wallace Hume Carothers (synthetics); PaulHermann Mueller (DDT); and Clair C. Patterson (lead-free gasoline and food).
PHOTO BELOW BY RAYMOND WARRIOR, COURTESY OF MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF WATER TREATMENT
Today, most cities take clean water forgranted.
Modern water treatment delivers safe drinking water by a series of chemical and physical steps.First, simple screens remove solids; next, chemicals are added to cause remaining solids to clumpor “flocculate” for easy removal. Finally, an addition of chlorine kills bacteria.
