Hidden Killers of the Victorian Home - Full Documentary

While the Victorians confronted the challenges of ruling an empire, perhaps the most dangerous environment they faced was in their own homes. Householders lapped up the latest products, gadgets and conveniences, but in an era with no health and safety standards they were unwittingly turning their homes into hazardous death traps.

In a genuine horror story, Dr Suzannah Lipscomb reveals the killers that lurked in every room of the Victorian home and shows how they were unmasked. What new innovation killed thousands of babies? And what turned the domestic haven into a ticking time bomb?

[ExUSSailor]

"Even if you hadn't eaten the wallpaper, you weren't safe..." That is simply a BRILLIANT sentence!

[Psychwriteify]

"You'll be leaving the building without ever opening the door."
You are my favorite good sir.

[lisaadams]

We'll be in one of these documentaries in about 40 years.

[funnylittlecactus]

After watching a few of these hidden killer documentaries, I wonder how anybody stayed alive. Everywhere they turned was more danger.

[dusterdude]

I watched an episode of Doc Martin a while back where this older lady was behaving as though she had gone mad and was accusing her son of trying to poison her. it turned out that the son had been stripping off the Victorian Era wall paper in her bed room where she was infirmed. and Martin discovered that she had been breathing the arsenic in the dust stirred up by Wall paper removal. and this was causing her madness.

[Orius]

Makes me wonder what unknown dangers have in our modern homes. Every generation has their ignorance.

[hollowone]

Can I just say that I love Mr Nathan Gross in every one of these. His laying of facts for the dangers and the grim deaths which lay in store after each are absolutely titillating.

[DeeAnnieFL]

I will watch every series with her in it. Her accent and the way she talks excitedly about the topic has me hooked, hanging on every word. <3 Of course, this is already a super interesting topic

[Alastor]

Imagine reading that book with the arsenic colour pages... and being one of those people who lick their fingers before turning each page....

[janellec]

She's such a great historian! She also appeared in a few episodes of Time Team.

[mstmms]

I learned so much! Awesome and fun! Dr. Suzannah Lipscomb, you rock!

[chavamara]

You forgot the green arsenic dresses! Shame, though, that green wallpaper was REALLY pretty. *sigh*

Also, the SHOES. Women were as likely to faint because of their shoes as their corsets because they were too narrow, to the point where you basically had to bind your feet to get into them, and had no arch supports as a result of mass production.

[mindrolling]

It ISN'T the "full documentary", it ends abruptly which is very annoying. Great series, too.

[BillKing]

I trust they took the parrot to the seaside too.

[michaeltowler]

I was brought up in the damp Basement Flat of what had been the Servant Quarters in one of those upstairs /downstairs Houses in the Forties. We still had the Gaslight fixtures with the lines still connected though not used, except for our Oven. Our Kitchen still had a huge Sink from when all the Laundry was done there. Mums' Iron stand had a bare Asbestos sheet stand and us in other places, We painted the rooms and outside every year with Paint with Lead in it, all my Toy Soldiers were made of Lead with the Paint coming off after a while and we had Coal Fires .sometimes all our washing had to be redone as depending on the weather would get Soot all over from the Trains at Marylebone Station which we lived to right next to . What with the Smogs, Vehicle fumes and later on smoking, I don't know how I survived to the present Day!

[daregorton]

thank you for posting these, such a great series! Every episode has me thinking what's in our homes now that's secretly killing us!

[Tina]

Those baby bottles, which could not be fully scrubbed, just make me cringe.

[rickautry]

Wow. at 40:47, there's a quick fade between scenes, showing a 'producer gas' system. The chief flammable gases were hydrogen and oxygen, from the breakdown of steam used in the system, and large amounts of Carbon monoxide - very flammable, yes, but as we know it now, definitely not something you want to pay to have piped into your house!

[Darkinu]

Much better sound mixing than the Timeline channel version.

[jmowreader]

The green wallpaper problem is more than slightly interesting, in a "what the hell did you think was going to happen?" way.

The pigment is Paris green. The chemical name is a real tongue twister - "cupric acetoarsenate." It's pretty easy to make, although it's time consuming and not good for you. You first need some arsenic trioxide, which you get by roasting - yes, in the oven like you'd roast meat - rocks that contain arsenic. Then you need some cupric acetate. You get that by hanging strips of copper over big vats of hot vinegar; after a few days the whole surface of the copper would be bluish-green. Scrape off the bluish-green material and you have the cupric acetate you need. Then you mix the two and - ta da! - you get Paris green.

People knew how deadly Paris green is. Everyone had a big can of it, which they used as a pesticide. The cans all said "poison!" in big letters. Why anyone believed making wallpaper out of this poison was a good idea, I will never know.