Edwin Chadwick launched in the 1840s the great sanitary awakening, arguing that filth was detrimental and that a healthy populace would be of higher value to England than a sick one. He had many schemes for cleaning up the city, one of which was to construct small-diameter sanitary sewers to carry away wastewater, a suggestion that did not endear him to the engineers. A damaging confrontation between Chadwick, a lawyer, and the engineers ensued, with the engineers insisting that their hydraulic calculations were correct and that Chadwicks sewers would plug up, collapse, or otherwise be inadequate. The engineers wanted to build large-diameter egg-shaped brick sewers that allowed human access. These were, however, three times as expensive as Chadwicks vitrified clay conduits. Who eventually won out, and why?