• J 1 IBR AR Y 



38— SMOKE ABATEMENT IN MINING AND^ . ■^•-*' 

 MANUFACTURING CENTRES. \^a>^^^' 



By Arthur H. Reid, F.R.I.B.A., F. R.S.I. 



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I have for some time, both at Johannesburg and at Cape Town, 

 watched the constant increase of smoke clouds, and as one who 

 has given the matter of Public Health some attention, I have come to 

 the conclusion that the cause of the same is preventable, and the 

 effect both detrimental to health and wasteful. Any person who has 

 eyes and uses them, must have noticed the clouds of smoke that 

 hang about the environs of Johannesburg when a southerly wind is 

 blowing, and in the early morning how the low lands north of 

 Bellvue are hidden from view not by mist but by smoke clouds, held 

 more or less in suspension by mist or atmospheric influence. 



To be rational, I will take the cause of this nuisance or waste 

 first, and in doing so it must be understood that I am not posing 

 as an engineering expert, or as an authority upon the subject under 

 review, but simply venture, as a commonsense individual, to attract 

 the attention of other thinking people to a matter that strikes me 

 as being wrong in every sense. Should my effort result in producing 

 a discussion between our engineering friends who may lay bare facts 

 that I hesitate to adduce, my reward will be secured. 



It is surely only commonsense to submit that smoke fog is 

 nothing more or less than particles of carbon or unconsumed coal, 

 and that their presence is due to the imperfect combustion or 

 consumption of coal from one cause or another. Commonsense will 

 also allow that such fog is detrimental to the health and comfort 

 of those whose lives have to be spent in contact with it, and I 

 shall prove, later on, that its presence has much to do with the 

 high cost of production and reduction of our gold ores, and, indeed, 

 of industrial productions generally. I do not propose to touch upon 

 the destructive effect of smoke upon animal or plant life, though I 

 venture to hope that my remarks may produce some valuable evidence 

 of the future danger its presence suggests if precautions are not 

 taken to prevent its increase. 



I submit, as nothing new, that the present system of having so 

 many steam-power installations for the working of our mines and 

 industries, instead of installing a few large power houses, is the 

 primary cause of the trouble I have named. By centralising the 

 electric or other power stations the production of smoke must be 

 reduced, first, on account of the great distance between smoke 

 stacks ; secondly, because the methods of fuel combustion can be 

 better supervised ; and, thirdly, because less coal will be consumed. 

 Electrical distribution of power, oil, hot air and internal combustion 

 gas engines, naturally suggest themselves as smoke-reducing schemes, 

 and it must indeed be a source of gratification and pride to our 

 Johannesburg Municipal Council that they have been among the first 

 to shew their appreciation of that fact by adopting gas engines for 

 the generation of Electric Power for the Municipal Tramways and 

 Lighting schemes. 



