When the iconic dome of St. Paul's Cathedral stood defiant against the smoke of the London Blitz, its survival was credited not to a general, but to the Victorian Poetry and obsessive Cathedral Preservation efforts of Sydney Arthur Alexander. As the cathedral's treasurer and spiritual guardian, Alexander realized that the spiritual symbol of England was literally tearing itself apart from the bottom up due to failing Foundation Engineering. He went from winning the Newdigate Prize for verses on Buddha to screaming at the public about the absolute necessity of "wet sand." While London industrialized and pumped groundwater for factories, the hydraulic cushion beneath the massive stone masonry turned into dry, shifting ball bearings. Alexander weapo ...