Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts

Monday, May 11, 2020

First Urban City in History




Gone are the days when people lived in the village, having their own households, a portion of arable land, a few animals there.

 The population grew, everything became a bit crowded and so the cities were created, which had other functions, commercial and craft, where you live with your neighbors. For 200 years, since industrialization, cities have grown in size, creating an ever-expanding oil and cement civilization. I know that the first city was Mureybet in Syria, founded in 10,000 BC

Mureybet - Alchetron




Then came Catalhoyuk in Turkey,  Jericho in Palestine, Ur, Eridu, Lagas, Ummah, Uruk, and Babylon in Iraq, Dobrovody in Ukraine, Abydos, Thebes and Memphis in Egypt, Mohenjo-Darro and Harrapa in India, Yinxu and Chengzhou in China.

Ancient Çatalhöyük - Wikipedia


In the classical period, Athens was established in Greece, Alexandria in Egypt, Carthage in Tunisia, etc.  But the first really sexy city was Rome, a real modern city by the standards of the time.

There are many sources that show that Rome was the first city to have 1 million inhabitants in the first century.  You may also like : Inferno "Historical Review and facts"

Alexandria, Egypt - Ancient History 


The second city to reach such a population would be Chang'an in China in the ninth century, Baghdad in Iraq and Kaifeng in China in the 10th century.

The first city with a population of 1,500,000 was Hangzhou in China in 1300.

The first city with a population of over 2 million was London in 1850, in the midst of the revolution. industries.

Aerial view of London, 1850. View of London looking north-east Getty Images


In 1870, London would have a population of 4 million, and in 1900-6 million.

London In 1900 Londonist








In 1925, the population of New York City reached 7 million, and after in 1962 to reach 15 million.

New York: the world's largest city in 1925 AD Highbrow 


But cities are not only measured by area and population, but also by the endowment and quality of life it offers to the population. Mohenjo Daro had a systematized infrastructure. The concept of "citizenship" and "vote" appeared in Athens.

Carthage was a great commercial center, and Alexandria was a true cultural capital.

Carthage - Ancient History Encyclopedia






Baghdad and Constantinople were great cultural and religious centers. Small city-states like Florence, Genoa, or Venice created their commercial maritime empires.

The first industrialized city with infrastructure, modern sewerage, factories, and plants, was London, which faced problems regarding poverty, disease, and congestion. Paris was perhaps the first city of style, a city of entertainment, a capital of fashion.



But the first mega-city was New York because it was not only huge in area, but also in height with its skyscrapers, dominated by jobs in the tertiary sector, being imitated by other cities such as Shanghai, Dubai, Tokyo. and so on.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Researchers have elucidated the mystery phenomenon ( London Fog of 1952 killed about 12,000 people )

Photo: 123rf.com
Londoners are accustomed to foggy weather and dark clouds that appear in winter. But in early December, 1952, the fog of city residents have been fatal.

At that time 14,000 people died and 150,000 have suffered respiratory infections. In the long term, it is estimated that about 12,000 people died from the effects of fog in that month. Also, the animals were affected.

Still had less reason to take issue with the cerccetători, but a new study tried to find out what was actually behind this event. A team of Chinese scientists, American and British bred in the lab fog and compared it with records from weather conditions in 2 cities highly polluted in China, Beijing and Xi`an.

Sulfates are a key component of fog in London, giving her features making it toxic and smelly. Thus, it is fair to say that London fog is caused by emissions of sulfur dioxide by stacks of housing or from industry. However, the sulfur dioxide is converted to sulfuric acid remains a mystery.

"The results show that this process is facilitated by nitrogen dioxide, another compound emitted by smokestacks, which takes the form of fog," said one of the team, Renyi Zhang of the University of Texas. "Another key issue in terms of conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfates is that it produces acid particles, which have an important role in this process. Natural mist is made up of extremely small particles and diluted acid is formed. Evaporation of all these particles leave behind acid mist particles covering the city, "he added.

"We believe we have succeeded in solving the mystery of the strange phenomenon that took place in London in 1952 and also China have offered some ideas on how to increase air quality. Reducing emissions of nitrogen oxides and ammonia interrupt the process of formation of sulfates, "concluded the researchers.




Story source: IFL Science