<P> Similar sanitation reforms, prompted by the Public Health Acts 1848 and 1869, were made in the crowded, dirty streets of the existing cities, and soap was the main product shown in the relatively new phenomenon of advertising . A great engineering feat in the Victorian Era was the sewage system in London . It was designed by Joseph Bazalgette in 1858 . He proposed to build 82 mi (132 km) of sewer system linked with over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) of street sewers . Many problems were encountered but the sewers were completed . After this, Bazalgette designed the Thames Embankment which housed sewers, water pipes and the London Underground . During the same period, London's water supply network was expanded and improved, and a gas network for lighting and heating was introduced in the 1880s . </P> <P> The model town of Saltaire was founded, along with others, as a planned environment with good sanitation and many civic, educational and recreational facilities, although it lacked a pub, which was regarded as a focus of dissent . During the Victorian era, science grew into the discipline it is today . In addition to the increasing professionalism of university science, many Victorian gentlemen devoted their time to the study of natural history . This study of natural history was most powerfully advanced by Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution first published in his book On the Origin of Species in 1859 . </P> <P> Although initially developed in the early years of the 19th century, gas lighting became widespread during the Victorian era in industry, homes, public buildings and the streets . The invention of the incandescent gas mantle in the 1890s greatly improved light output and ensured its survival as late as the 1960s . Hundreds of gasworks were constructed in cities and towns across the country . In 1882, incandescent electric lights were introduced to London streets, although it took many years before they were installed everywhere . </P> <P> One of the great achievements of the Industrial Revolution in Britain was the introduction and advancement of railway systems, not only in the United Kingdom and the British Empire but across the world . British engineers and financiers designed, built and funded many major systems . They retained an ownership share even while turning over management to locals; that ownership was largely liquidated in 1914 - 1916 to pay for the World War . Railroads originated in England because industrialists had already discovered the need for inexpensive transportation to haul coal for the new steam engines, to supply parts to specialized factories, and to take products to market . The existing system of canals was inexpensive but was too slow and too limited in geography . </P>

The social and historical context of victorian england