0:00:06 > 0:00:10The Victorian home was a place of sanctuary from the outside world,
0:00:10 > 0:00:14especially in the cities where dirt and disease hung in the air
0:00:14 > 0:00:16and danger stalked the streets.
0:00:22 > 0:00:27And thanks to advances in science, a whole host of products and services
0:00:27 > 0:00:32were promising to make life at home cheaper, easier and more convenient.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35But they were also making life much more dangerous.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38For under the guise of family-friendly products,
0:00:38 > 0:00:40mass consumption was bringing killers
0:00:40 > 0:00:43into the very heart of the Victorian home.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49With the aid of modern science, I'll seek out the deadly assassins
0:00:49 > 0:00:51that hid on every floor.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54Leaning too close to the fire and, "Boof!", they burst into flames!
0:00:56 > 0:00:59I'll be revealing what the Victorians couldn't see
0:00:59 > 0:01:01inside their homes...
0:01:01 > 0:01:05Five grams is sufficient to potentially kill a small child.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08..and showing the terrible injuries that were inflicted
0:01:08 > 0:01:10in the name of progress.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14That could completely remove the skin from the hand and the arm.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20Welcome back to the perilous world of the real Victorian home.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34Between 1800 and 1900 the urban population in Britain
0:01:34 > 0:01:36increased tenfold.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41London became the biggest industrial city in the Western world.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45City dwellers in houses like this
0:01:45 > 0:01:48were creating an unprecedented demand
0:01:48 > 0:01:51for mod cons as well as life's necessities.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56They were becoming mass consumers at the end of a production line.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03Supplying the household with the basic foods
0:02:03 > 0:02:06in the newly-expanded cities of up to 3 million people
0:02:06 > 0:02:08was a strategic challenge.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10But thankfully, by the late 19th century,
0:02:10 > 0:02:14the staples of bread and milk had become cheaply available.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19To cater for the new demands,
0:02:19 > 0:02:22the Victorians pioneered new food-processing techniques.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30This left the consumer at the mercy of the unscrupulous merchants
0:02:30 > 0:02:33responsible for each part of the food chain.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42One thing that the Victorians loved above all was profit
0:02:42 > 0:02:44and the way to make profit, of course,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48is to use the cheapest ingredients and charge a high price for them,
0:02:48 > 0:02:51so adulteration became very popular throughout the Victorian period.
0:02:53 > 0:02:58Some merchants would substitute real ingredients with cheap alternatives
0:02:58 > 0:03:01that would add weight and increase profit margins.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04Food adulteration had always gone on,
0:03:04 > 0:03:09but the new manufacturing process meant it was now big business.
0:03:14 > 0:03:15The food shops themselves change as well
0:03:15 > 0:03:18so you used to have a system whereby for example, with bread,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21the miller was the same as the baker, was the same as the retailer.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25Now the miller mills the flour, passes it to the baker,
0:03:25 > 0:03:27the baker bakes and the retailer sells.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29So you've got divorcing all the way along the chain.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31That de-personalises the food chain.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34People don't have the personal relationship with their customers,
0:03:34 > 0:03:36therefore they think they can get away with it.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38Anything that is made, manufactured,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41or passes through the hands of somebody who can adulterate it,
0:03:41 > 0:03:45by the mid-Victorian period, the chances are it will be adulterated.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51These additions were astounding -
0:03:51 > 0:03:55chalk, iron sulphate and even plaster of Paris.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02But for many, buying processed foods
0:04:02 > 0:04:05released them from the drudgery of baking,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08was time-saving and, above all, was affordable.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12Bread was particularly susceptible to tampering
0:04:12 > 0:04:14as many things could be disguised in it.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20The biggest adulterant at the time was alum
0:04:20 > 0:04:22and that's been used since the 18th century.
0:04:22 > 0:04:23It's a whitener.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27What it does is it enables you to take seconds or middlings
0:04:27 > 0:04:30or the lower grades of flour and make them look whiter.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36Alum is an aluminium-based compound often found today in detergent,
0:04:36 > 0:04:40but when hidden in bread, it not only makes it whiter
0:04:40 > 0:04:43but retains water, so the bread feels more substantial.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48In theory, the amounts used were quite small
0:04:48 > 0:04:51and in theory they were not particularly dangerous to health
0:04:51 > 0:04:53but when you've got both the miller adding alum
0:04:53 > 0:04:55and then you've got the baker adding alum as well,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58then you start to build up the dose to levels
0:04:58 > 0:05:00where it really will affect your bowel system.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06Food Historian Annie Grey has prepared three loaves for me,
0:05:06 > 0:05:10to illustrate the choice I would have had as a Victorian housewife.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13Whilst one loaf is pure, two of them have plaster of Paris,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17alum and other undesirables added to them.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19And which is which?
0:05:19 > 0:05:24Well, you're the Victorian housewife, so I would say, you're in the baker's
0:05:24 > 0:05:27and you're presented with these loaves, which one would you pick?
0:05:27 > 0:05:30Well, they all look very attractive, which is slightly worrying.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33It's really quite dense, though, isn't it, it's quite heavy.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35Listen to that!
0:05:37 > 0:05:42This one's still quite dense, but again looks nice...
0:05:43 > 0:05:46And smells really like rubber or something.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48Very odd.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51That smells fine.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53This is lighter.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Smells more like bread that I'm familiar with.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02So my guess is that this one is fine?
0:06:02 > 0:06:05Yes, it is, although it's interesting the way that perception plays a role.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08Part of the reason that you're preferring that one, I suspect,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11is because we are predisposed now to like granary breads
0:06:11 > 0:06:14and things that look healthy, whereas with your Victorian hat on,
0:06:14 > 0:06:16you should be looking for the bread that is whitest
0:06:16 > 0:06:18and therefore will impress your dinner guests.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21So I would probably be looking not to go for something wholemeal
0:06:21 > 0:06:22that looks healthy today,
0:06:22 > 0:06:24- but for something like this.- Yes.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26In the Victorian period people really want white bread.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28The current obsession with wholemeal, granary,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32beautiful artisanal loaves, nothing. You want white bread.
0:06:32 > 0:06:34So alum is the whitener that's put in.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38Which is which, in terms of these two? Which is the one...
0:06:38 > 0:06:40- What's got what? - This one is the alum-based one,
0:06:40 > 0:06:43and this one is the one with plaster of Paris and bean flour.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47From a baker's point of view, this one's brilliant because a third
0:06:47 > 0:06:50of the dry solids in this are not pure flour,
0:06:50 > 0:06:52so you're making a reasonable saving
0:06:52 > 0:06:55on even the sort of low grade flour that you're using.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01But this housewife's choice had dire consequences for the consumer.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05If you were a worker eating two pounds of bread a day
0:07:05 > 0:07:09and not much else, when you consider that a third of what you're eating
0:07:09 > 0:07:12just won't benefit you at all, you can see why chronic malnutrition
0:07:12 > 0:07:15is such an issue, and when your adulterants are things like
0:07:15 > 0:07:19plaster of Paris and alum, you can also see why chronic gastritis
0:07:19 > 0:07:21is a problem in late Victorian England.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23If you're in a workhouse and you're a three-year-old,
0:07:23 > 0:07:25you're going to start off with constipation.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27You're then going to have irregular bowel movements,
0:07:27 > 0:07:29and that will lead to diarrhoea.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31And if you are a three-year-old in a workhouse,
0:07:31 > 0:07:34and you have got chronic diarrhoea, then that will lead to death.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48Another reason for adulteration was a desire to make food
0:07:48 > 0:07:50more attractive and appealing.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52Colour was a key component.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56And so there were things like colourants.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58You might have something like lead chromate,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00which is a very vivid yellow colour.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02In fact, it's the yellow that's used in the paint
0:08:02 > 0:08:05of American school buses. It's that really bright yellow.
0:08:05 > 0:08:06And that was put in things like mustard
0:08:06 > 0:08:09to give it an authentic mustard colour
0:08:09 > 0:08:12without having to actually include too much of the real ingredient,
0:08:12 > 0:08:13which is expensive.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17Tea is adulterated with everything from iron filings, to dust,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20to used tea leaves, then black lead to make it look black.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23Green tea has Prussian blue in it. I mean, they're pretty lethal.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28Sir Arthur Hill Hassall, a London-based physician,
0:08:28 > 0:08:32identified adulteration in 2,500 products
0:08:32 > 0:08:35and published his results in the Lancet.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39This led to the first wave of legislation in 1868.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43The food adulteration laws were not very strong
0:08:43 > 0:08:45when they were initially put in, and they were not particularly
0:08:45 > 0:08:48effective either. People simply continued
0:08:48 > 0:08:50because it was very difficult to police,
0:08:50 > 0:08:51it was very difficult to prove.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56And even after it is known about, even after Ackham and Hassall
0:08:56 > 0:09:00start to publicise food adulteration, people just simply don't know what
0:09:00 > 0:09:03adulterated food looks like versus non-adulterated food.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06So you might know that your bread is probably adulterated,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09but either you don't have a choice or you just assume blithely
0:09:09 > 0:09:10that it happens to other people.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16Bread adulteration might ultimately kill you
0:09:16 > 0:09:19because of malnutrition, but there was a greater,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23more immediate danger that was part of every child's diet.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30For the Victorians, milk was a cheap and important source of calcium.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33A healthy food, it was thought.
0:09:33 > 0:09:38However, in 1882, 20,000 milk samples were tested
0:09:38 > 0:09:41and revealed that one-fifth had been adulterated.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43A clue as to what was going on
0:09:43 > 0:09:46came from the domestic goddess of her day, Mrs Beeton.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52The Victorians sought advice on all manner of things,
0:09:52 > 0:09:56and when it came to food, Mrs Beeton was their guru.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00According to the 1888 edition of her Book Of Household Management,
0:10:00 > 0:10:04"Milk", she said, "could be purified by preparations
0:10:04 > 0:10:08"of which the principal constituent is boracic acid,"
0:10:08 > 0:10:12and she adds, "It is said that most of the milk that comes to London
0:10:12 > 0:10:15"is treated in this way."
0:10:15 > 0:10:18She concludes, "Fortunately for the consumer,
0:10:18 > 0:10:20"it is a quite harmless addition."
0:10:22 > 0:10:25But was it as harmless as Mrs Beeton believed?
0:10:25 > 0:10:29Microbiologist Matthew Avison has devised an experiment
0:10:29 > 0:10:31that tests Mrs Beeton's advice.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35Boracic acid was a component of a product called borax,
0:10:35 > 0:10:39an alkali which was used during the Victorian period
0:10:39 > 0:10:40to prolong the life of milk.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47This milk doesn't taste very nice, so you would throw it away.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51The Victorians would say, "That's a waste, so let's do something to it
0:10:51 > 0:10:53"that removes the sour taste",
0:10:53 > 0:10:56and what they would have done is added alkalis.
0:10:56 > 0:11:01When fresh, milk has a neutral pH measurement of around seven,
0:11:01 > 0:11:03but over time, as it sours or spoils
0:11:03 > 0:11:06and becomes contaminated with bacteria,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10it becomes more acidic and its pH measurement drops.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14So the Victorians worked out,
0:11:14 > 0:11:16probably by trial and error,
0:11:16 > 0:11:20that if you add alkali to this, it would neutralise the acid
0:11:20 > 0:11:25and I've calculated that that will neutralise the acid in this milk,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28so just give it a bit of a shake
0:11:28 > 0:11:34and then we'll show, hopefully, that it gives a pH closer to neutral.
0:11:34 > 0:11:40So you can see this has gone back to 6.6, which is approximately neutral.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44It's neutralised the acid, it's now made this milk palatable again.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49This new wonder alkali, sold in the shops as borax,
0:11:49 > 0:11:53was so popular it became a staple of the Victorian larder.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59But alarmingly, borax wasn't only used to treat milk -
0:11:59 > 0:12:02it was also marketed as a wonderfully versatile product,
0:12:02 > 0:12:05as I found when I read the journals of the time.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12I'm just looking at these ads and there's a sketch from 1893
0:12:12 > 0:12:16and there's this absolutely extraordinary one-page ad -
0:12:16 > 0:12:18"Californian Household Treasure."
0:12:18 > 0:12:22It says, "It's absolutely pure and absolutely safe.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24"It possesses qualities that are exceptional
0:12:24 > 0:12:27"and unknown to any other substance and it purifies water,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30"destroys bacilli..." It promises everything.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34In fact, borax promised too much -
0:12:34 > 0:12:36as well as "purifying" milk,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39it was brilliant at cleaning your bath and your loo.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45So what happened when borax ended up in the body?
0:12:47 > 0:12:49borax, or sodium borate,
0:12:49 > 0:12:53if inhaled or ingested, can cause severe irritation.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56So if it's swallowed, it can cause abdominal pain, nausea,
0:12:56 > 0:12:58vomiting, diarrhoea.
0:12:58 > 0:12:59If you have a large amount of it,
0:12:59 > 0:13:01it will start to affect other organs,
0:13:01 > 0:13:03like the brain and the kidneys.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05And if you have enough, it can prove fatal.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08But just how much borax is harmful?
0:13:08 > 0:13:12I've added a small amount of borax to neutralise the acid in this milk,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15but of course, if you had a pint of milk you'd need more borax,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18so I calculated that you need this much borax to neutralise
0:13:18 > 0:13:20a pint of milk that has gone sour.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25This is five grams and, according to some people,
0:13:25 > 0:13:29five grams is sufficient to potentially kill a small child.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35So the addition of borax was not as harmless as Mrs Beeton suggested.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38Enough of it could kill.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41But by reducing the acid in the spoiled milk
0:13:41 > 0:13:43and disguising the sour taste,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46borax was concealing another deadly threat.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53The real problem is, it doesn't get rid of the bacteria,
0:13:53 > 0:13:55the underlying cause of the acid,
0:13:55 > 0:13:59and those bacteria could still kill people.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03Bacteria like brucella, which causes undulating fever,
0:14:03 > 0:14:07it's a nasty fever that can go on for weeks at a time,
0:14:07 > 0:14:12that's not particularly lethal, but what would be lethal would be TB.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18The bovine TB bacterium is present in cow's milk
0:14:18 > 0:14:22and this is what was able to flourish undetected in the milk
0:14:22 > 0:14:23with devastating effects.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30Bovine TB, it's not the same TB that would cause the coughing symptoms
0:14:30 > 0:14:35that we associate with TB, but what's called non-pulmonary TB,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38which spreads out into the extremities,
0:14:38 > 0:14:40includes damage to internal organs,
0:14:40 > 0:14:46damage to the bones, and particularly problematic in children.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50What other effects could drinking milk contaminated
0:14:50 > 0:14:52with the bovine TB bacterium have?
0:14:54 > 0:14:59Bovine TB could also cause damage to the bones in the spine.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02For example, it could cause an abscess
0:15:02 > 0:15:04in the bones of the spinal column
0:15:04 > 0:15:05which would soften the bone,
0:15:05 > 0:15:08which would then collapse to form a wedge shape.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11And if several of these vertebrae collapsed at once,
0:15:11 > 0:15:13it could cause massive deformity of the spine.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20This woman was actually particularly lucky because her TB damaged
0:15:20 > 0:15:23only the bones of the spine and not the spinal cord itself.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27If the abscess had tracked and burst backwards into the spinal column,
0:15:27 > 0:15:31it would have compressed the spinal cord and caused paralysis at best
0:15:31 > 0:15:32or death at worst.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45Effectively, purifying this according to the standards of Mrs Beeton
0:15:45 > 0:15:47is like removing the bio-hazard tape
0:15:47 > 0:15:50and now, it's basically pot luck
0:15:50 > 0:15:54as to whether we have something that is contaminated and could kill us
0:15:54 > 0:15:58or something that is not contaminated and is safe to drink.
0:15:59 > 0:16:04Adding borax to milk allowed bovine TB bacteria to grow undetected,
0:16:04 > 0:16:09exposing a generation to a lethal infectious disease.
0:16:10 > 0:16:15It's estimated that virtually all children were exposed to
0:16:15 > 0:16:20Bovine TB at some time during their upbringing, and it's known
0:16:20 > 0:16:24that many of those children succumbed to that infection.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28So you're saying that hundreds of thousands of people,
0:16:28 > 0:16:31mostly perhaps children, died as a result of that?
0:16:31 > 0:16:35There are many studies, one of which was a series of post mortems
0:16:35 > 0:16:38done in London in the 1890s,
0:16:38 > 0:16:43and they did postmortems on 1,300 children who had died.
0:16:43 > 0:16:4930% of those children had died as a result of TB - non-pulmonary TB...
0:16:49 > 0:16:51Almost certainly that came from milk.
0:16:51 > 0:16:56If we extrapolate that up, it's considered likely
0:16:56 > 0:17:00that half a million children died of TB from milk
0:17:00 > 0:17:02during the Victorian era.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34Despite these horrendous deaths, the purification of milk with alkali
0:17:34 > 0:17:38was not banned by legislation in the Victorian period.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42And the problem of adulterated food continued,
0:17:42 > 0:17:45until gradually, consumer pressure led manufacturers
0:17:45 > 0:17:49to advertise their wares as "pure" and "unadulterated".
0:18:04 > 0:18:07The next hidden killer lies not in the room,
0:18:07 > 0:18:09but between the levels of the Victorian house.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15The dangers weren't just the result
0:18:15 > 0:18:17of products introduced into the home,
0:18:17 > 0:18:22they were built into the very fabric of the new Victorian houses.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25One of the most common death traps was right under their feet.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33Stairs have always been dangerous.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36Even with today's building regulations,
0:18:36 > 0:18:40at least 300,000 accidents occur every year in the UK.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43But in Victorian times it was even worse.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50There's numerous accounts of people falling down staircases
0:18:50 > 0:18:53and breaking their necks or breaking their legs
0:18:53 > 0:18:55and dying later of septicaemia.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00Why were there so many deaths and injuries from stairs?
0:19:03 > 0:19:06The finger points to the urban population boom.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08The number of Victorians per square mile
0:19:08 > 0:19:12increased from 390 in 1871
0:19:12 > 0:19:14to 558 by 1901.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19Houses were thrown up and packed into smaller plots
0:19:19 > 0:19:23with little concern about regulation or standardisation.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28The problem was is the way that the house styles changed.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31Houses become very much more narrow.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35So what you've got is very high ceilings, 10-11 feet,
0:19:35 > 0:19:36with a very narrow frontage.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39It's a straightforward geometrical problem
0:19:39 > 0:19:42because if you've got 11 foot and only a very short space
0:19:42 > 0:19:44to get into it, the staircase has to be steep.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52In middle-class homes, the stairs that were most likely to be
0:19:52 > 0:19:56cheaply constructed, to be the steepest and the narrowest,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59were those that led to the servant quarters.
0:20:06 > 0:20:11Upstairs/downstairs came from the difference in staircases
0:20:11 > 0:20:14from the decorated staircase which was the main one
0:20:14 > 0:20:18in the house which was there as a show of wealth.
0:20:18 > 0:20:19It was a...
0:20:19 > 0:20:24It was a statement to say, "Look, this is how much money I've got."
0:20:24 > 0:20:27As you came through the front door, there's these wonderful double
0:20:27 > 0:20:32bullnose stairs, highly decorated with spindles and volutes
0:20:32 > 0:20:35and balustrades and goosenecks.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38You had people spending thousands and thousands
0:20:38 > 0:20:41and thousands of pounds on these staircases.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45And then the downstairs staircase was for the servants.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51It was built out of the cheapest soft wood that you could possibly buy.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54You'd be lucky if there was handrails and spindles.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56Rises of nine, ten, 12 inches.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01Safety really wasn't high on the agenda.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08Tragic really, because by 1847, visionary builder
0:21:08 > 0:21:13Peter Nicholson had calculated how to build a safer staircase,
0:21:13 > 0:21:16transforming the art of stair-building into a science.
0:21:19 > 0:21:25He came up with a mathematical formula for working out
0:21:25 > 0:21:28the rise and go of a staircase.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31He worked out that if you went up a certain height,
0:21:31 > 0:21:35you could travel a certain distance with great ease
0:21:35 > 0:21:39and he developed a formula around that.
0:21:53 > 0:21:55Nicholson's formula considered how
0:21:55 > 0:21:57someone could take a normal stride
0:21:57 > 0:22:02yet still allow them to rise six to eight inches with every step.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04Until you get those factors right then the stairs is always
0:22:04 > 0:22:06going to be a dangerous place.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11There is a science to stair building
0:22:11 > 0:22:14but in the rush to throw up houses, it was a science that was
0:22:14 > 0:22:16often overlooked in the late Victorian period.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25I've come to Manchester Metropolitan University
0:22:25 > 0:22:28to see what modern science can tell us
0:22:28 > 0:22:30about the dangers of the Victorian stairs.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35I've been wired up to a motion-capture device which will
0:22:35 > 0:22:39track every step I take to find out how my body adapts to the stairs.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43Professor Costas Manganaris...
0:22:43 > 0:22:45OK, I'm just going to clip you into the harness.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49..and Professor Neil Reeves are experts in biomedical research
0:22:49 > 0:22:52and are going to demonstrate two staircases.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56We'd like you to go to the top of the staircase,
0:22:56 > 0:22:58stand facing this way and just walk down
0:22:58 > 0:23:00at your own comfortable speed as you would normally.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05This first staircase has been set to dimensions similar to
0:23:05 > 0:23:09a main Victorian staircase, following Nicholson's principles.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14The going, or width, of each step has been set to 11 inches
0:23:14 > 0:23:18and the height, the rise, to 12 and a half inches.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23Well, apart from all the get-up, it felt pretty easy
0:23:23 > 0:23:24coming down those stairs.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27I'd be happy running up and down those, no problems at all.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29Now they set the stairs
0:23:29 > 0:23:32as they might have been in the servants' quarters.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36This definitely breaks Nicholson's formula.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42With the going narrower and a steeper rise.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44Can you walk down as you would normally?
0:23:48 > 0:23:51Predictably, this is not comfortable at all.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53In fact I'm really having to slow down,
0:23:53 > 0:23:57change the way I take each step and hold the handrail.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59Imagine if I had to carry a tray or the linen,
0:23:59 > 0:24:03and couldn't see where my foot fell because of a long skirt.
0:24:09 > 0:24:15If we measure your foot, this is about 26 centimetres,
0:24:15 > 0:24:19which is much larger than the 17.5 centimetres room you had.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22I had to turn it sideways.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24You had to turn your foot sideways.
0:24:24 > 0:24:25Well, otherwise...
0:24:25 > 0:24:29Otherwise, what will happen is an important part of the foot
0:24:29 > 0:24:31will come out of the edge
0:24:31 > 0:24:35and then you would have an increased likelihood of encountering a slip.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37Yes, yes, and I have fallen down the stairs before
0:24:37 > 0:24:42- so I was very conscious of not wanting to do it.- Absolutely.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45From the data input, the scientists reveal
0:24:45 > 0:24:49that on the servants' staircase, we are six times more likely to fall
0:24:49 > 0:24:50than on the grand one.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54It may seem obvious that a steeper staircase would be more dangerous,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57but there was another hidden danger -
0:24:57 > 0:25:01many Victorian homes were built with non-uniform steps.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08This video of a New York subway stairs illustrates what happens when
0:25:08 > 0:25:12one stair out of 16 is a fraction of an inch higher than the others.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17Professor Jake Pauls,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20a specialist in stair safety, studied the stairs
0:25:20 > 0:25:25and worked out that this tiny change has a dramatic impact on the misstep
0:25:25 > 0:25:30and fall incidents that is not equated to any other stair defect.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33In other words, you're more likely to fall
0:25:33 > 0:25:36if the stair is not uniform than for any other reason.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43What is it about that video? What does it tell us?
0:25:43 > 0:25:45Well, I think what it tells us
0:25:45 > 0:25:48is that people get used to a very regular stair pattern
0:25:48 > 0:25:51very quickly, so after a few steps. And if, all of a sudden,
0:25:51 > 0:25:55there's a step that's very different, it poses a difficulty to people.
0:25:55 > 0:26:00This is why it's more likely for someone to have an accident
0:26:00 > 0:26:01or slip on that irregular step.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05If you had given me two that were the bigger ones
0:26:05 > 0:26:08and then a smaller one, I almost certainly would have fallen down.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11- Exactly.- Thank you for not doing that!
0:26:11 > 0:26:15By disregarding Nicholson's formula, the Victorians' new staircases,
0:26:15 > 0:26:18installed in many of these narrower houses, had unwittingly
0:26:18 > 0:26:21combined high rises, narrow goings
0:26:21 > 0:26:25and uneven steps to create a grave hazard for the servants.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33With the extra weight of carrying trays and food,
0:26:33 > 0:26:38there's no way they could get up and down those stairs in one piece.
0:26:40 > 0:26:42Total death traps.
0:26:42 > 0:26:43Absolute death traps.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50Stairs remain one of the most common sources of accident
0:26:50 > 0:26:51and death in the home.
0:26:57 > 0:26:59To understand our next set of dangers,
0:26:59 > 0:27:02we need to appreciate one of the major preoccupations
0:27:02 > 0:27:05of our Victorian forbears.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09It was at this time that cleanliness was becoming powerfully linked
0:27:09 > 0:27:12to ideas of morality and respectability
0:27:12 > 0:27:15and this was reflected in the literature of the period.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18Charles Kingsley's novel The Water Babies epitomises it
0:27:18 > 0:27:21because it suggests you can take a dirty boy off the street
0:27:21 > 0:27:24and transform him into a model gentleman,
0:27:24 > 0:27:26through the cleansing power of water.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28It sums it up in the last lines.
0:27:28 > 0:27:29They say,
0:27:29 > 0:27:33"Meanwhile do you learn your lessons and thank God that you have plenty
0:27:33 > 0:27:37"of cold water to wash in - and wash in it too, like a true Englishman?"
0:27:44 > 0:27:48The Victorians were totally and utterly obsessed with being clean.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51For them, the idea of cleanliness was truly next to godliness.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54They were setting themselves against the 18th century,
0:27:54 > 0:27:57which was a time of dirt, a time when the upper classes,
0:27:57 > 0:28:00that perfume was used to disguise dirt.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04The Victorians believed that a clean heart, a clean body,
0:28:04 > 0:28:05meant a clean soul.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12It was this desire for cleanliness that would lead the Victorians
0:28:12 > 0:28:14to embrace a whole new range
0:28:14 > 0:28:18of potentially deadly innovations and products.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23One of the rooms that the Victorians can claim
0:28:23 > 0:28:25to have invented is the bathroom.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28And what surer sign of progress than a private room
0:28:28 > 0:28:30in which to carry out one's ablutions?
0:28:36 > 0:28:39The bathroom really appears primarily
0:28:39 > 0:28:42because running water comes into the home for the first time.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46So if you can actually bring water into the home,
0:28:46 > 0:28:50it becomes more practical to have a room dedicated to its use.
0:28:50 > 0:28:55Until the mid-Victorian period, hot tubs for bathing had stood
0:28:55 > 0:28:58next to the fire in the front room or kitchen,
0:28:58 > 0:29:01where water had to be warmed and poured into them.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05This means that servants no longer have to be sort of traipsing
0:29:05 > 0:29:08up and down the back stairs carrying large amounts of water.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11I think this is when the bathroom, as we know it,
0:29:11 > 0:29:14as a sort of separate, private, lockable space,
0:29:14 > 0:29:18away from the rest of the house, really starts to take shape.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22What the Victorians hated most of all was the idea of bodily fluids,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25the kind of smells they made, the kind of traces they left.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28They wanted to expunge them entirely from the body,
0:29:28 > 0:29:32so that no-one can smell the traces of these fluids
0:29:32 > 0:29:34that link you to the working classes.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40INDISTINCT SPEECH
0:29:40 > 0:29:43And what happened in this private, lockable space could be
0:29:43 > 0:29:45incredibly dangerous.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50I've come to Blaise Castle in Bristol
0:29:50 > 0:29:52to meet curator Catherine Littlejohns.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56I want to get some idea of the inventions available
0:29:56 > 0:29:58to the Victorians who sought to meet
0:29:58 > 0:30:00these new high standards of cleanliness.
0:30:03 > 0:30:05Oh, wow.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08We're just going to look at some of the baths in the collection.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11I'm going to show you one of my favourite things.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13It's actually a gas-powered bath.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16So if we have a look at the underneath here,
0:30:16 > 0:30:19you can see where the gas went in the front here.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21And then just around by you,
0:30:21 > 0:30:24there's a little door, which is where you would light the gas.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27OK, so here you would put in your lighted match or whatever.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30- Yes.- Gosh, so that's actually ridiculously dangerous, isn't it?
0:30:30 > 0:30:32Doesn't it mean that you can boil yourself in your bath?
0:30:32 > 0:30:34You very probably could do.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37The instructions, the guidance always says.. They're very careful
0:30:37 > 0:30:40to point out you don't want to actually start turning the gas on
0:30:40 > 0:30:42until you've got some water in the bath
0:30:42 > 0:30:43so you don't boil it dry.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47They don't really make a mention of making sure you don't
0:30:47 > 0:30:49get into the bath while the gas is on.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53The desire to be clean meant that the bath's popularity
0:30:53 > 0:30:57outpaced any concern about the dangers, which were significant.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02The papers regularly reported cases of scalding
0:31:02 > 0:31:04so serious they resulted in death.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11It wasn't until the invention of the thermostat,
0:31:11 > 0:31:16safer gas and its installation that these risks would be addressed.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22This new room, with its cutting edge innovations,
0:31:22 > 0:31:24would bring even more killers into the home.
0:31:28 > 0:31:30I think they were trying to understand the dangers
0:31:30 > 0:31:34of electricity and water and gas, and all of these new services
0:31:34 > 0:31:37coming into fairly small, confined areas,
0:31:37 > 0:31:40without really understanding the dangers of how they actually
0:31:40 > 0:31:41interact with each other.
0:31:43 > 0:31:45What could be better or more desirable
0:31:45 > 0:31:48than having a loo that flushed?
0:31:48 > 0:31:51But its introduction was not without problem.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54The first danger lay in the plumbing.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58Early plumbing in Victorian houses, the sewer systems
0:31:58 > 0:32:02didn't efficiently drain away the waste.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06Gases such as methane and hydrogen sulphide
0:32:06 > 0:32:08emanating from human waste
0:32:08 > 0:32:12would not be able to escape and would build up in the sewer.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15Both of these gases are not only flammable,
0:32:15 > 0:32:17but they're also explosive.
0:32:21 > 0:32:23What always used to happen was
0:32:23 > 0:32:26the sewerage outlet would get blocked
0:32:26 > 0:32:29and somebody would have to go and figure out how to clear it,
0:32:29 > 0:32:31to get it to actually run away free.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33At the time, there wasn't electric batteries,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36torches and stuff like that, so the only way you could actually go
0:32:36 > 0:32:39and investigate it was unfortunately with a...a naked flame.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50Not only could gas collect in the sewer,
0:32:50 > 0:32:53methane could actually leak back into the house itself.
0:32:55 > 0:32:59It was a quite common occurrence for outlets of toilets
0:32:59 > 0:33:01to spontaneously combust.
0:33:01 > 0:33:06And that was really where the drive towards improvements in draining
0:33:06 > 0:33:08actually came from -
0:33:08 > 0:33:13they needed to stop methane getting back into the houses.
0:33:16 > 0:33:21And it was one of Britain's most famous inventors that helped
0:33:21 > 0:33:23put a stop to this potential killer
0:33:23 > 0:33:26with one small but crucial component.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30Thomas Crapper, even though he gets a lot of good press
0:33:30 > 0:33:34about inventing the toilet, he actually invented the siphon valve,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37which is actually a water trap and a valve flap which actually
0:33:37 > 0:33:41stops methane coming back into the property, so it couldn't ignite.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53It didn't stop the problems down in the main sewers
0:33:53 > 0:33:56but it stopped it actually affecting the people who lived in the house.
0:34:02 > 0:34:06Not only were Victorian bodies subject to a new regime
0:34:06 > 0:34:09of washing and scrubbing, but what they put on them was too.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17Wealthy Victorians - both men and women -
0:34:17 > 0:34:20could change their clothes up to five times a day.
0:34:20 > 0:34:25By the late Victorian period, laundry had become a huge operation
0:34:25 > 0:34:27because clothing was not simple.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30There was an extensive amount of clothing, even for a child,
0:34:30 > 0:34:31and certainly for a woman.
0:34:31 > 0:34:33She wore a lot of underclothing, a lot of linen
0:34:33 > 0:34:36and these had to be changed regularly.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39The Victorian mistress had a constant battle against
0:34:39 > 0:34:42her greatest enemy, which was dirt.
0:34:42 > 0:34:46The Victorian house could not escape the pollution of the time.
0:34:46 > 0:34:48In London, for instance,
0:34:48 > 0:34:51the manure of the 100,000 working horses,
0:34:51 > 0:34:55the pervasive smog and the smoky gas lamps in the home,
0:34:55 > 0:34:57all took their toll.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00Victorian wash day was quite a mammoth task -
0:35:00 > 0:35:04you washed the clothes on the Monday, you dry them
0:35:04 > 0:35:07on the Tuesday and you would be ironing them on Wednesday.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11So a large part of your week would be taken up by the wash.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15Doing the laundry was an expensive business
0:35:15 > 0:35:18and a major part of the household budget.
0:35:18 > 0:35:19For those who could afford it,
0:35:19 > 0:35:22a laundress could be hired in by the day.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25It was a military-style operation.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30Every Victorian middle-class woman came to her marriage
0:35:30 > 0:35:33with great trunks full of white clothing, linen,
0:35:33 > 0:35:37and her big job throughout her marriage was keeping those
0:35:37 > 0:35:38just as brilliantly white.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42And what she used in this endeavour was soaps, disinfectants,
0:35:42 > 0:35:44and, most of all, she used the mangle.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47CREAKING
0:35:50 > 0:35:53So I've just fed this in from the back here.
0:35:53 > 0:35:55And you have to get it so that it's between the rollers.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59'Wringing out heavy fabrics sodden in boiling water
0:35:59 > 0:36:02'became easier with the arrival of the mangle.'
0:36:02 > 0:36:05It's not too heavy because of the gear system
0:36:05 > 0:36:07and of course this is dry...
0:36:07 > 0:36:09So if you were doing it with wet clothes...
0:36:09 > 0:36:12But of course this brought its own perils.
0:36:12 > 0:36:17But why is it so dangerous? It seems really quite solid.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20I think it's probably like a lot of Victorian contraptions
0:36:20 > 0:36:24where, yes, it is very solid, but you've got exposed gear wheels
0:36:24 > 0:36:29and things. And obviously you have to feed the clothing in.
0:36:29 > 0:36:32And what you have to remember is that the lady of the house
0:36:32 > 0:36:35would have been doing this with young children around,
0:36:35 > 0:36:38her daughters would have been watching her because they needed
0:36:38 > 0:36:41to learn how to work these things and often,
0:36:41 > 0:36:45- probably, in quite a confined space. - Ooh, the dangers of little fingers.
0:36:45 > 0:36:46Possibly.
0:36:50 > 0:36:55The injuries incurred by washday mangle accidents were horrific
0:36:55 > 0:36:57and sometimes fatal.
0:36:57 > 0:36:59Oh, a mangle could do an awful lot of damage,
0:36:59 > 0:37:00particularly to a child.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02It was typically children who would put their hand,
0:37:02 > 0:37:04out of curiosity, into the mangle.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09Obviously the hand, the arm, and it typically was the upper limb
0:37:09 > 0:37:11that was caught, would be compressed
0:37:11 > 0:37:13and everything in it would be squashed.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16And a significant proportion would have fractures of the bones
0:37:16 > 0:37:20as well as damage to the soft tissue.
0:37:20 > 0:37:21There was sheering force,
0:37:21 > 0:37:24where you're pulling the skin in opposite directions
0:37:24 > 0:37:27and that could completely remove the skin from the hand and the arm,
0:37:27 > 0:37:31and tear it all away to reveal the muscles and tendons underneath.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58The dangers of the mangle might seem obvious to us now,
0:37:58 > 0:38:01but our next hidden killer was impossible to see,
0:38:01 > 0:38:02both then and now.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13Things couldn't just look clean, the new science of germs
0:38:13 > 0:38:15and microbes was changing ideas of cleanliness -
0:38:15 > 0:38:19from tackling the visible to the invisible.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22Dangerous germs, they feared, could lurk hidden from sight
0:38:22 > 0:38:24and needed to be eradicated.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36Until the late Victorian period,
0:38:36 > 0:38:40many believed that diseases were caused and carried by bad air.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42But with improvements in technology
0:38:42 > 0:38:46and the emergence of high-powered microscopes,
0:38:46 > 0:38:50bacteria began to be identified as the cause of disease.
0:38:51 > 0:38:53But this science was brand new
0:38:53 > 0:38:57and not easily understood by the general public.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02There are various theories around the origins of disease
0:39:02 > 0:39:04at this point, they're quite confused about it.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07They've started to be aware of germ theory,
0:39:07 > 0:39:09but this isn't fully understood yet.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16What they did understand was that there were microbes all around -
0:39:16 > 0:39:19invisible to the eye but everywhere.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22And this made the Victorians disproportionately fearful
0:39:22 > 0:39:24and easily spooked.
0:39:24 > 0:39:26Some mothers didn't want to kiss their children
0:39:26 > 0:39:28because they thought it would spread germs.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32This is very real and comes up again and again in diaries,
0:39:32 > 0:39:36the fact that people were afraid of each other because of germs,
0:39:36 > 0:39:39which is a horrific thing when you think about it.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42As this climate of fear escalated, so people became
0:39:42 > 0:39:46increasingly alarmed about all manner of little things.
0:39:53 > 0:39:59One of the most important things, apart from germs, were flies.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02The great fly scare of the 1890s.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07The great fly scare was caused by the public awareness
0:40:07 > 0:40:10of the speed with which flies could spread germs.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13Flies were everywhere, living off the horse manure,
0:40:13 > 0:40:14and trampled into the home.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20Once scientists identified flies as carriers of disease,
0:40:20 > 0:40:22the public reacted.
0:40:22 > 0:40:27They realised that one of the main communicators of germs were
0:40:27 > 0:40:31probably flies, with their little sticky feet walking over everything.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35And once you started to look at flies like that,
0:40:35 > 0:40:37they became objects of horror.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42The terrors of insects and moths
0:40:42 > 0:40:45and caterpillars that need to be sternly exterminated
0:40:45 > 0:40:49because they just show the natural world coming into your perfect home.
0:40:51 > 0:40:57Also skirts. Not strictly speaking anything to do with flies,
0:40:57 > 0:41:00except if you noticed as you walked around with a long skirt on
0:41:00 > 0:41:03that you'd be brushing up against the faeces,
0:41:03 > 0:41:06horse manure and everything else.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09And that was likely to bring fly eggs in, or anything,
0:41:09 > 0:41:11so skirt lengths went up to ankles.
0:41:13 > 0:41:17Once skirts went up, the shutters came down on flies in the home -
0:41:17 > 0:41:20with a variety of products invented to stop them.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23You'd have fly screens.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25You have little lace doilies over your milk jugs.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28You have little lace doilies everywhere really.
0:41:28 > 0:41:33You cover your curtains with lace to stop flies coming in,
0:41:33 > 0:41:36not really so that you cannot see out.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41All of these things were partly to do with the fly scare.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46But the fight against germs would require more than beaded doilies.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49The Victorians needed to believe that these germs were being
0:41:49 > 0:41:53eradicated by newly invented products that would kill
0:41:53 > 0:41:56all known germs...dead.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59Many claims were made in the name of science
0:41:59 > 0:42:01before all these items could be vigorously tested,
0:42:01 > 0:42:05making the late Victorian home a very scary place to be.
0:42:16 > 0:42:18And the Victorians worshipped science,
0:42:18 > 0:42:21they worshipped invention, so they would do anything
0:42:21 > 0:42:25to make things cleaner, even if that meant using dangerous chemicals.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33But as the incredible cleaning powers of these new items
0:42:33 > 0:42:37became more potent, so the dangers in the home increased.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42The problem was that many cleaning products are toxic
0:42:42 > 0:42:45and they have to be, that's how they have their cleaning effects.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49But they were stored and sold in very similar packages.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51So you would go to the shop
0:42:51 > 0:42:54and get a box that contained something like baking soda,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57which we would use to bake bread or cakes and is perfectly harmless.
0:42:57 > 0:43:01But it may look very similar to the box of caustic soda, which of course
0:43:01 > 0:43:05is very corrosive and would do a huge amount of damage to the body.
0:43:05 > 0:43:10Dangerous chemicals such as caustic soda and carbolic acid were now
0:43:10 > 0:43:14in the cupboard next to the flour, and sugar - and were easily muddled.
0:43:14 > 0:43:18The opportunity for mistakes and mix-up between products was huge.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26Drinking bleach or carbolic acid, for example,
0:43:26 > 0:43:28would lead to an agonising death.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31The first thing that would happen would be a burning sensation
0:43:31 > 0:43:33in the oesophagus, because it is directly corrosive
0:43:33 > 0:43:36to anything that it comes in contact with.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39And so that would go down into the stomach and cause abdominal pain.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42In the early stages, if the person survives
0:43:42 > 0:43:44and they don't go into renal failure, they may develop
0:43:44 > 0:43:48strictures because of scaring of the oesophagus, meaning that they're
0:43:48 > 0:43:51unable to swallow any food, and of course, that could prove fatal.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54This lack of distinction in bottles
0:43:54 > 0:43:57and packaging of toxic cleaning materials
0:43:57 > 0:44:01and dangerous substances didn't just confuse the Victorian at home.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05There were cases where even professionals made mix-ups
0:44:05 > 0:44:07with disastrous consequences.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15On one occasion in Bradford, a chemist mistakenly mixed
0:44:15 > 0:44:19arsenic into his lozenge recipe - killing 12 people
0:44:19 > 0:44:23and rendering a further 78 seriously ill.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29And so it was this problem with the packaging that really
0:44:29 > 0:44:33forced legislation to make packages much more distinct -
0:44:33 > 0:44:37different shaped and sized and coloured bottles and boxes, so that
0:44:37 > 0:44:42you couldn't reach for the flour and pick up the arsenic, for example.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48But it wasn't always an accident -
0:44:48 > 0:44:51lethal poisons of all descriptions were
0:44:51 > 0:44:53easily and readily available over the counter.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56With this lay a new temptation,
0:44:56 > 0:45:00because poisoning could go undetected.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02The Victorian age was the age of the poisoner -
0:45:02 > 0:45:07the rise of arsenic was to many people a great opportunity.
0:45:07 > 0:45:09Previously, if you wanted to murder somebody, you had to
0:45:09 > 0:45:13use your brute strength, you'd have to stab them or strangle them.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15When arsenic became widely available,
0:45:15 > 0:45:17there was a lot of comment in the newspaper saying,
0:45:17 > 0:45:20well, women can just slip it into their husband's tea.
0:45:20 > 0:45:21So why wouldn't they?
0:45:21 > 0:45:23They were absolutely afraid that
0:45:23 > 0:45:25all the women in Britain would turn poisoner
0:45:25 > 0:45:27because why would you not murder your husband
0:45:27 > 0:45:29and go off to be a merry widow? Why not?
0:45:32 > 0:45:35People bought poisons for things like rat poisoning
0:45:35 > 0:45:37and fly papers, so you could easily just go and buy them
0:45:37 > 0:45:39for completely legitimate reasons.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42The other reason was this is a time when life insurance
0:45:42 > 0:45:45became available. So you could take out a life insurance policy
0:45:45 > 0:45:47on one of your family members. And then, if they die,
0:45:47 > 0:45:49you could claim the money.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52And there's evidence of quite a lot of unscrupulous people
0:45:52 > 0:45:56who took out large policies before people mysteriously died.
0:45:58 > 0:46:02There were many poisons around, things like arsenic, but probably
0:46:02 > 0:46:05the worst and the one that caused the most awful death was strychnine.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11Strychnine could be used both as a medicine
0:46:11 > 0:46:14and in the garden as a pesticide.
0:46:14 > 0:46:15A white odourless powder,
0:46:15 > 0:46:19it was like so many other items in the cupboard.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23It has very immediate and unpleasant effects.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27First of all, the muscles of the head and the neck would start to contract
0:46:27 > 0:46:31and then spasms would spread to all the muscles of the body.
0:46:31 > 0:46:33The person would start to convulse
0:46:33 > 0:46:35and at its worst, the muscles of the body would be
0:46:35 > 0:46:39so contracted that the person would be resting on just their heels
0:46:39 > 0:46:44and their head with their back bowed in the middle and unable to move.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48Death would follow rapidly, either because of paralysis
0:46:48 > 0:46:51of their respiratory muscles, which meant they couldn't breathe,
0:46:51 > 0:46:54or exhaustion following all these awful convulsions.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58Demand had never been higher
0:46:58 > 0:47:02and manufacturers had never sold so many poisonous products.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05It would take a long time for that to change.
0:47:07 > 0:47:11It wasn't until just after the Victorian Age, in 1902,
0:47:11 > 0:47:14that the Pharmacy Act required that bottles of disinfectant
0:47:14 > 0:47:16be distinguishable by touch
0:47:16 > 0:47:19from bottles in which ordinary liquids were contained.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27In order to find the next hazard, we must first understand
0:47:27 > 0:47:31the temptations on offer to the middle-class Victorian.
0:47:31 > 0:47:33Could this be a hidden killer?
0:47:36 > 0:47:39Manufacturers began to woo a burgeoning mass market.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43This was the first age of mass advertising.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45Back in the 1850s and 1860s,
0:47:45 > 0:47:48it had been thought ungentlemanly to advertise.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51Now, for the first time, advertising became powerfully visual -
0:47:51 > 0:47:56photography and art were used to sell goods, advertising agencies
0:47:56 > 0:48:00were founded, and celebrities started to endorse products.
0:48:17 > 0:48:19There's an expansion in print culture.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22There are more newspapers, there are more magazines.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25But there are also new technologies and ways of producing images
0:48:25 > 0:48:26and putting them in them.
0:48:26 > 0:48:32For example, photographs appear in magazines from the 1890s onwards.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35And this really means advertising takes on a new visual form
0:48:35 > 0:48:36at this point.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40And I think it becomes more persuasive and more powerful.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44The power of advertising put new pressure on Victorians
0:48:44 > 0:48:46and would lead to increased risks.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50These advertisements are particularly aimed
0:48:50 > 0:48:53at the upper-class and the middle-class woman.
0:48:53 > 0:48:54And what they're trying to say is,
0:48:54 > 0:48:57if you don't buy our products, if you don't use our products,
0:48:57 > 0:49:01you will be a failure as a housewife, as a woman.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03So they really played on insecurities.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07And what they did was they got everyone to buy all kinds
0:49:07 > 0:49:11of dangerous substances under the guise of perfecting your home.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15And the perfect Victorian home wouldn't be complete without
0:49:15 > 0:49:19a dangerous new material, which they inadvertently
0:49:19 > 0:49:22welcomed into their homes in an amazing array of objects.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27The man who invented it was so famous at the time,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30a letter bearing just name and city would get to him.
0:49:30 > 0:49:35Mr A Parkes, inventor of Parkesine, Birmingham. And it got there!
0:49:40 > 0:49:43Birmingham, dubbed "the city of 1,000 inventions",
0:49:43 > 0:49:46had become a magnet for scientists
0:49:46 > 0:49:50and it was here that Parkes developed his revolutionary idea.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53He took cotton wool, ordinary cotton wool,
0:49:53 > 0:49:55which he combined with acids and various things,
0:49:55 > 0:50:00and he discovered how to convert the material into a mouldable material
0:50:00 > 0:50:02which we today would call plastic.
0:50:02 > 0:50:04So we reckon he is the father of plastics.
0:50:04 > 0:50:08We've sort of forgotten about this great British inventor, haven't we?
0:50:08 > 0:50:10I know, he was a great inventor too.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12He had something like 90 patents to his name
0:50:12 > 0:50:14but he wasn't a very good businessman,
0:50:14 > 0:50:16his company folded about two years later.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19But his idea was so good, it was picked up in the States
0:50:19 > 0:50:22by a guy called Hyatt. And Hyatt gave it the name celluloid.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24And from then on, we have known it as celluloid.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27We've forgotten Parkes, but we all know celluloid as an early material.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31It was the Americans who developed it into a business success -
0:50:31 > 0:50:33and started something of a revolution.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40It wasn't until 1885 that the world's first really successful
0:50:40 > 0:50:41plastic product hit the streets.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45And it was something quite unusual - it was a celluloid collar and cuff.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48And there is a sociological reason for it, of course.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51The clerks sitting at those high desks, writing on their ledgers
0:50:51 > 0:50:54all day long, and they wouldn't be allowed to have scrap paper
0:50:54 > 0:50:57for calculations so they made calculations on their cuffs.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00Now they couldn't afford a clean linen collar and cuff
0:51:00 > 0:51:02every day, like their bosses.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05And they couldn't afford to launder them, so by the end of the week
0:51:05 > 0:51:07they must have been chaotic with numbers all over them.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11Then along comes celluloid. You can do all the numbers you want
0:51:11 > 0:51:13on your cuff during the day, take it home at night,
0:51:13 > 0:51:15put it under the tap, rinse it, shake it dry
0:51:15 > 0:51:19and put it on again in the morning looking pristine, just like the boss.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23And it was an amazing sociological success all over the world, 1885.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29For as these affordable celluloid products found their way
0:51:29 > 0:51:32into items all over the house - a terrible discovery was made.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37It's a wonderful material but it's not a perfect material
0:51:37 > 0:51:39because it's inflammable, it burns.
0:51:39 > 0:51:41Chemically it's very similar to gun cotton
0:51:41 > 0:51:43and gun cotton we know is an explosive material.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47So cellulose nitrate, Parkesine, celluloid, it burns very fiercely.
0:51:50 > 0:51:52Ignoring its flammability,
0:51:52 > 0:51:56celluloid was such a useful material that canny manufacturers saw
0:51:56 > 0:52:01numerous opportunities to produce those must-have items.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05When the invention of plastics allowed brooches, hair combs
0:52:05 > 0:52:08and mirrors to be as ornate and attractive-looking
0:52:08 > 0:52:13as the much more expensive ivory, they were eagerly swept up.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16The middle-classes wanted to look wealthy and modern
0:52:16 > 0:52:20and these products allowed them to look just that.
0:52:20 > 0:52:22This Victorian evening bag, for example.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24This looks like a piece of hand-carved ivory, but it's not,
0:52:24 > 0:52:26it's a piece of pressed celluloid.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32It wasn't a real ivory comb, it was made of celluloid
0:52:32 > 0:52:35and it wasn't a real wooden bath, it was painted like wood
0:52:35 > 0:52:37and that's because the Victorians were
0:52:37 > 0:52:40so delighted by innovation and by science,
0:52:40 > 0:52:43and they loved the idea of tricking themselves,
0:52:43 > 0:52:46and also they loved the idea of a cheap bargain.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49Maybe not such a great bargain.
0:52:49 > 0:52:53I want to find out just how flammable celluloid really is.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55This is a ping pong ball from China.
0:52:55 > 0:52:59It's one of the few products in the world that you can still buy
0:52:59 > 0:53:01that's made of celluloid.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04Assisting me is Martin Shipp from the Building Research Establishment.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07Martin, the flame please...
0:53:11 > 0:53:13Wow! A surprisingly fierce flame -
0:53:13 > 0:53:16definitely not something to try at home.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18Martin estimates that celluloid
0:53:18 > 0:53:21is five times more flammable than plywood.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30Celluloid's chemical composition meant it could not only
0:53:30 > 0:53:34go up in flames easily, but it was also unreliable in other ways.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38Over time, it degrades.
0:53:38 > 0:53:43Light and chemicals can cause it to gradually break down,
0:53:43 > 0:53:47And in that breakdown process, it releases camphor
0:53:47 > 0:53:51and it releases alcohols and other things that are flammable.
0:53:51 > 0:53:56And those flammable gases in the atmosphere can then be ignited
0:53:56 > 0:53:58by a spark or a flame,
0:53:58 > 0:54:01without anybody igniting the celluloid itself.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03That's what made celluloid so dangerous.
0:54:06 > 0:54:08And there were other problems too.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11Celluloid items could also spontaneously combust,
0:54:11 > 0:54:15as this cartoon of the time illustrates.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17And billiard balls - traditionally made of ivory -
0:54:17 > 0:54:20were now made from the cheaper celluloid -
0:54:20 > 0:54:25until it was discovered that they would explode on impact.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28This is an example of one of the very first billiard balls
0:54:28 > 0:54:29made from cellulose nitrate.
0:54:29 > 0:54:31And the inventor of this billiard ball
0:54:31 > 0:54:34had a letter from a Colorado saloon keeper, that he didn't mind
0:54:34 > 0:54:37when the balls crashed together and you got a mini-explosion,
0:54:37 > 0:54:40because it's an explosive material, but what he did object to
0:54:40 > 0:54:43was that every man in the room turned round and pulled out a gun!
0:54:44 > 0:54:46But even worse was to come.
0:54:46 > 0:54:50Celluloid was so versatile, it replaced materials like ivory
0:54:50 > 0:54:55and bone, in clothing - items like corsets and lace, brooches,
0:54:55 > 0:54:59bracelets, and all sorts of accessories were either made of,
0:54:59 > 0:55:00or featured celluloid -
0:55:00 > 0:55:03without concern for the accumulative effect.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06This is a hair comb used in the 1890s.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09And the fashion and the style was to have a hair comb
0:55:09 > 0:55:12pushed in the back - not just one but several.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14But when you consider this is a highly flammable material...
0:55:14 > 0:55:18There were reports of people passing too closely to gas lamps
0:55:18 > 0:55:22or leaning too close to the fire, and...BOOM...they burst into flames.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28There were terrible tales of misadventure,
0:55:28 > 0:55:30like the woman who failed to notice a cigar roll
0:55:30 > 0:55:34under her celluloid-enhanced dress until it was too late.
0:55:36 > 0:55:42She immediately ran outside to try and get away from the smoke.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45Unfortunately, that change in conditions
0:55:45 > 0:55:50from fairly restricted within a small area in a home,
0:55:50 > 0:55:54to outside where there was a lot of oxygen and some wind,
0:55:54 > 0:55:57the skirt started to burn with flames.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00And she was immediately engulfed in flames.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07In her pursuit of cut-price fashion, the Victorian woman had been
0:56:07 > 0:56:10transformed into a walking fire hazard.
0:56:12 > 0:56:17Although in 1922 there was an act enforcing better safety in premises
0:56:17 > 0:56:22where raw celluloid film was stored, there was never any legislation
0:56:22 > 0:56:27to stop the use of celluloid in fashionable items and in clothing.
0:56:27 > 0:56:29It was only over the course of the 20th century,
0:56:29 > 0:56:33as more improved, less flammable plastics were invented,
0:56:33 > 0:56:35that the use of celluloid declined.
0:56:37 > 0:56:40But while its introduction had been a dangerous one -
0:56:40 > 0:56:45it developed into a far safer product that is still with us.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48One that a British inventor had been responsible for.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52I think you can look around today and virtually everything
0:56:52 > 0:56:56you look at, touch, control, everything you do, involves plastics.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59It controls our lives today, which you may think is a good thing
0:56:59 > 0:57:02or a bad thing, but it does, we can't avoid that.
0:57:02 > 0:57:04He set the wheels in motion for all that.
0:57:04 > 0:57:06He laid the foundations for a massive industry
0:57:06 > 0:57:10that controls and affects everybody's lives throughout the world.
0:57:12 > 0:57:15From the food they ate, to the clothes they wore, and the gadgets
0:57:15 > 0:57:19and products championed by the new exciting advertising campaigns,
0:57:19 > 0:57:23Victorian homes were brimming with killers.
0:57:23 > 0:57:26They lay dormant until scientific progress,
0:57:26 > 0:57:29consumer concern or a brave new pioneer
0:57:29 > 0:57:31raised their voice above the clamour
0:57:31 > 0:57:33and forced a change for the better.
0:57:35 > 0:57:40But the Victorian ideal of "safe as houses" was never really fulfilled.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48Many of the domestic fatalities of late Victorian Britain can be
0:57:48 > 0:57:52explained by middle-class desires to make their lives easier,
0:57:52 > 0:57:54cheaper and more convenient,
0:57:54 > 0:57:58and to conform to ideals of morality and respectability.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02But we mustn't forget that they were pioneers,
0:58:02 > 0:58:04and progress always comes at a cost.
0:58:04 > 0:58:08As the century reached its close, Britain was leading the world
0:58:08 > 0:58:12and was on the verge of a golden age in which scientific advances
0:58:12 > 0:58:14would really start to make a difference.
0:58:14 > 0:58:16But would the Edwardian home be any safer?
0:58:21 > 0:58:24Next time, I'll be discovering how a new century, a new monarch
0:58:24 > 0:58:26and extraordinary new inventions
0:58:26 > 0:58:29would have an impact on the Edwardian Home.
0:58:29 > 0:58:31She covered her face in poison.
0:58:31 > 0:58:34Absolutely lethal.
0:58:49 > 0:58:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd