244 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



FOUE POINTS IN" THE INDICTMENT OF THE SMOKE 



NUISANCE 



By JOHN O'CONNOR, JR. 



MELLON INSTITUTE] OF INDUSTRIAL EESEAECH, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH 



IN all papers and talks concerning the smoke nuisance, it has become 

 customary to refer to the economic cost of the nuisance both to the 

 public and to the smoke makers. This is the indictment which is sup- 

 posed to strike home. When a speaker on this subject says 



The abolition of the smoke nuisance, unlike many other social nuisances 

 against which outcry has been, would result in direct and immediate gain both 

 to the public at large and to those who are chiefly responsible for the nuisance 

 itself, 



he feels that he has said the last word. 



There are other points in the indictment of the smoke nuisance to 

 which attention may more properly be directed. It is the purpose of 

 this paper to tell of the present knowledge on four of these points, 

 namely : 



1. The effect on building materials. 



2. The effect on meteorological conditions. 



3. The effect on vegetation. 



4. The effect on health. 



There has been much talk within the last few years concerning city 

 planning. The principal idea that city planning seems to convey to 

 most people is a beautiful and costly square, set in the center of an 

 ugly city. All real city planning should have as one of its main objects 

 the purification of the atmosphere. Some forty years ago, John Eus- 

 kin, speaking to the Society of British Architects, said : 



All lovely architecture was designed for cities in cloudless air. . . . But our 

 cities, built in black air, which, by its accumulated foulness, first renders all 

 the ornament invisible in distance, and then chokes its interstices with soot; 

 . . . for cities such as these, no architecture is possible. 



An architect in a smoky city is forced to take atmospheric condi- 

 tions into account. Drain pipes must be arranged with great care — that 

 there may result no splashing of the soot-carrying water to discolor the 

 sides of the building. Mouldings must be so designed that the rain 

 will not wash over the face that soot which collects on top of the mould- 

 ings. Drips must be provided on all projections. Under-cutting, deli- 

 cacy of incised line and sharpness of angular forms must be foregone, 

 for the soot deposited will, in time, fill up the crevices and mar the 



