SMOKE ABATEMENT 335 



In the first place by securing uniformity of the law in all 

 localities and centres of manufacturing industry, the migration 

 of an industry or manufacture from one district to another 

 would be checked ; and in the second place, by the appointment 

 of smoke-inspectors under the Local Government Board, similar 

 in rank and education to the inspectors under the Alkali Acts, 

 the best technical and scientific advice as to the methods of 

 securing smoke abatement could be offered, with more proba- 

 bility than at present that it would be accepted and acted upon. 



The provision by which the smoke-inspectors appointed 

 under the local authority are to be paid in part by the Local 

 Government Board, is also a useful one, since it will secure 

 greater uniformity and efficiency in the whole service. 



As already stated, the Bill has been shelved for the time 

 by the appointment of a strong Departmental Committee to 

 report on the best method of attacking the admitted evils of 

 black smoke, and of strengthening the laws against excessive 

 smoke emission. This Committee has held many meetings during 

 the present summer, and there is no doubt that the Bill will 

 be reintroduced into both Houses of Parliament at an early date, 

 with the modifications suggested by the report of the Committee. 



II. Soot and Dust Fall Observations in Cities and 

 Towns. — At the International Exhibition of Smoke Abatement 

 Appliances and Conference on the Black Smoke Problem, held 

 in London in March 1912, a committee was appointed to draw 

 up a specification for a standard apparatus and method for 

 measuring the extent and character of the air pollution in cities 

 and towns. Numerous meetings of the members of this 

 committee were held in London in 1912-13, under the pre- 

 sidency of Dr. Norman Shaw, F.R.S., Chief of the Meteorological 

 Office, and eventually a type of apparatus and method were 

 selected, based on that used for the Lancet observations in 

 London in 1910-11, with certain modifications suggested by 

 experience. Circular letters were sent out by the committee to 

 the greater number of local authorities in the country, asking 

 for their co-operation and support in these new observations, 

 and as a result of this propaganda, the public health authorities 

 of twenty-one English and Scotch towns, also of several of the 

 London boroughs, have agreed to join in this work of recording 

 the character and amount of atmospheric pollution, and thirty- 

 eight gauges are now (July) in use. 



