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

On a blustery morning in that fateful year, disaster befell Boston. A massive holding filled with sticky, sweet molasses gave way sending a torrent of the thick liquid rushing through the streets. The impact was catastrophic, flattening buildings and burying citizens in a gooey soup. Hundreds of people were fatally injured, and many more sustaine