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A neglected aspect of the history of germ theories is its use in the purification of sewage. In the 1890s, progressive reformers rapidly developed bacteriological methods of wastewater treatment. A comparison of the United Kingdom's Manchester and the United States' Chicago shows, however, that science and technology were mediated by political culture and institutions. In Manchester, a politics of deference and strong extralocal government gave the authority of scientific expertise a decisive role in policy formation. In Chicago, devolution of power to the ward bosses meant a quarter-century of defiance against the national authority and its effort to get the city to install a modern sanitation system.
Harold L. Platt (Thu,) studied this question.