What was a Disinfecting Station

[Stuart0742]

What was a "Disinfecting Station"

[RichardB]

The Pub (No 37) was the Corporation Hotel.

<RichardB hides>

[Guest tsavo]

As the disinfection station was just around the corner from the West Bar Hostel I think it was probably the public de-lousing station.

[Guest Nimrod]

I remember being told about my grandad coming home from France in 1914. Arriving in Sheffield in cattle railway trucks, being marched up to Glossop Rd. Bathed, shaved[all over ] de-loused, uniform burned, disinfected, new clothes issued and sent home.

[DaveH]

I remember being told about my grandad coming home from France in 1914. Arriving in Sheffield in cattle railway trucks, being marched up to Glossop Rd. Bathed, shaved[all over ] de-loused, uniform burned, disinfected, new clothes issued and sent home.

Disinfecting stations were used at the end of both World Wars to prevent the spread of disease, particularly Typhus Fever transmitted by the human louse, caused by large numbers of people being forced to live in unsanitary conditions during the war. At the end of the First World War there was a major flu epidemic (Spanish flu) which killed millions. No amount of disinfecting could have prevented that as disinfecting is useless against viral infections. At the end of the Second World War a potential for Typhus Fever was prevented by "disinfecting". The disinfecting agent was the newly re-discovered insecticide dichlordiphenyltrichloroethane (D.D.T.). 25 years later in "Silent Spring" Rachel Carson may have pointed out the environmental disater this substance was causing by concentrating itself to lethal proportions as it passed along the food chain and of course its use was eventually banned, but, at the end of the war "disinfecting" with it certainly prevented many deaths from epidemics of potentially fatal diseases carried by lice.

[DaveH]

As the disinfection station was just around the corner from the West Bar Hostel I think it was probably the public de-lousing station.

Military stuff aside, as this is from a 1950's map of Sheffield I agree with Tsavo's deduction above. In times when people lived in slums and unsanitary conditions where houses could very quickly be over run with a variety of vermine, insect and lice infestations were often dealt with by fumigation of the property (often with the acid rain gas, sulphur dioxide) and "disinfection" of more delicate items such as furniture, clothing, personal items and people themselves. I seem to recall that in some areas they had a mobile de-lousing service built into the back of a converted van (and no it didn't fumigate things by using a short length of rubber hose from the van to the exhaust pipe!)