The picture below was taken at a water pump on Broadwick St ( Formerly known as Broad St) in London
The reason the handle is missing is because one of my hero’s did the work to prove that this well was a source of Cholera during an outbreak in 1854.By going house to house and with the help of others he was able to show that people who drank water from this pump had died . This was early germ theory and epidemiology.
It was highly controversial to remove the handle and the company who supplied the water were not happy..
The deaths slowed down and then Stopped.
You want integrity? He admitted that the fleeing population may have contributed to the decline.
Of course we now know it was removing the source of the contamination . Hence our clean water infrastructure and non existent cholera unilateral those systems get contaminated.
Interested ,read The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson.
The Wikipedia article is very good.
He was also a pioneer in the use of anesthesia
Here’s to you health
Paul.
