SMOKE ABATEMENT 343 



boilers, and is carrying on an investigation of the conditions 

 obtaining in the boiler-rooms of the steamers that frequent the 

 port of Hamburg, with a view to the application of the same 

 methods of supervision and control that have proved so successful 

 on land. 



United States 



The black smoke problem in America, though less difficult of 

 solution than in the United Kingdom, owing to the more general 

 use of closed stoves and of anthracite coal, or coke, for domestic 

 heating purposes, is still a serious one. This is especially the 

 case in such cities as Pittsburg and Cleveland, which are centres 

 of the iron and steel industries, and in these and other American 

 cities, where soft bituminous coal is burned in large quantities, 

 the smoke-abatement movement has attained considerable force 

 and momentum. 



A decided impetus has been given to the movement in 

 America in recent years, by the smoke investigation that has 

 been carried on by the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research 

 attached to the University of Pittsburg. The funds for this 

 investigation were provided in 191 1 by a generous Pittsburg 

 citizen who wished to remain anonymous. The inquiry has 

 engaged the attention of a staff of twenty-eight university gradu- 

 ates since early in 191 2, and as regards some of the branches 

 of investigation is not yet completed. When one states that 

 the commission has eight physicians and five architects in addi- 

 tion to several chemists and engineers, and a botanist, a meteoro- 

 logist, and a bacteriologist on its staff, one will understand 

 that it is attempting to cover the ground very thoroughly, and 

 that the data obtained ought to be of exceptional interest and 

 value. 



The investigation has been divided into two parts — the first 

 being analytical or, to use an American term, " diagnostic," and 

 the second constructive or remedial. Under the first head are 

 grouped the meteorological, botanical, chemical, physical, 

 architectural, hygienic and medical, and economic researches. 

 Under the second are grouped the experimental and educa- 

 tional work of the staff, as well as the more important phases 

 of the engineering investigation and of the legal administrative 

 investigation. 



Apart from these two main divisions of the work, provision 



