SMOKE 



SMOLLETT 



523 



changed into a white fog or must; therefore changes 

 of temperature causing convection currents, or elec- 

 trical discharges, will disperse the densest fog with 

 extraordinary rapidity. In like manner such a fog 

 finding its way into a dwelling-house is exposed to 

 currents of dry heated air, in which the condensed 

 moisture reassnmes its gaseous or invisible condi- 

 tion, while the other constituents are deposited 

 as a grimy coatinjj upon its walls, furniture, &c. 

 Likewise in hreathing such a fog-laden atmosphere 

 the carlxm and oily products are arrested by the 

 air-passage.*, and become apparent in the expec- 

 torated secretion from the bronchial tubes. A com- 

 paratively small amount of solid carbon and oily 

 vapour may thus bring about atmospheric condi- 

 tions wholly at variance with all ideas of beauty, 

 comfort, and cleanliness. Of course with perfect 

 combustion only carlxmic acid and water vapour 

 are the products ; lioth being colourless vapours. 

 There are numerous mechanical stokers by which 

 the green fuel is gradually carried from the furnace 

 doors to the tire bridge, by which means the smoke 

 and tarry vapours given off during the distillation 

 stage are forced over the mass of incandescent fuel 

 occupying the posterior position in the furnace. 

 In some cases the fuel is also by mechanical means 

 fed from the bottom of the grate bars, by which 

 means the same end is gained. The onlv objection 

 to the general use of such stokers is tiie expense 

 of erection, and the cost of upkeep. 



(2) Smoke Abatement. It has Been pointed out 

 that wherever smoke is agitated e.g. by atmo- 

 spheric or electric current* its carbon is quickly 

 deposited by its particles agglomerating into masses 

 too heavy to remain in suspension. This may be 

 simply shown, as, when smoke is agitated by fanners 

 or air-currents in a closed space, in a short time 

 it loses its characteristic black colour, the carbon 

 being deposited as smuts ( see ' Condensed Carbon 

 Particles in Smoke,' Jour. Soc. of Chem. hid., 

 vol. ix. ). 



Other plans by which smoke from furnaces is 

 passed through water and washed have been tried 

 with more or less success, and may come to lie 

 compulsorily adopted in factories, as is now the 

 case with iron blast-furnaces, where the pro- 

 ductsviz. carlHin, hydrocarbons, ammonia, and 

 even the carbonic and sulphurous acids present in 

 all coal-smoke are profitably utilised. From each 

 ton of coal used in iron-smelting are obtained, of 

 oil used for lucigens for burning, 64 Ib. ; pitch, 84 

 Ib. ; sulphate of ammonia, 20 Ib. ; the gross value 

 about 3e. 6d., less charges. The net saving on each 

 ton of coal may be taken at 2s., which is about 

 one-fourth of the cost of the coal. By means of 

 such appliances there is now no difficulty in pre- 

 venting the emission of coloured smoke from any 

 factory-chimney (Klliott's, Mond's, and other pro- 

 censes), lint the real difficulty which meets all 

 attempts at smoke abatement lies in the senti- 

 mental desire for the cheerful though smoky blaze of 

 English house-fires. This causes, it has been esti- 

 mated, in London alone the production of thousands 

 of tons of black smuts per annum, which descend 

 either on the city itself or in its immediate vicinity. 



Long ago it was pointed out that to obtain the 

 full advantage of the use of coal it should be car- 

 bonised i.e. heated in closed retorts, when the 

 whole of the volatile products, consisting of oil, 

 tar, and gas ( which latter is, the immediate cause 

 of the production of smuts), would be properly 

 utilised, leaving a coke which would not only inirn 

 with a smokeless flame, but give out, weight for 

 weight, a much larger amount of available heat 

 than the uncarlwnised coal. At the same time the 

 inflammable gas (one of the products of this pro- 

 cess) would either alone or mixed with the coke 

 yield, when properly burned, a smokeless fuel for 



use in kitchens or fireplaces, thus doing away with 

 this serious evil, as well as effecting an annual 

 saving estimated by Macaulay at 45,000,000 tons 

 of coal (representing a sum equal to 15,750,000) 

 in Great Britain alone. 



Many attempts have been made to effect this by 

 constructing house-grates and cooking-ranges so 

 that the raw coal is introduced from the bottom 

 i.e. at the fire-bars or grids, so that all gaseous 

 products have to pass through an incandescent 

 mass of carbon before reaching the chimney. But 

 such attempts in general have failed, owing to the 

 mechanical difficulties which have to be overcome 

 and which would necessitate the entire reconstruc- 

 tion of the present house-heating arrangements. 



In addition to the extreme discomfort and inter- 

 ruption to traffic which such fogs cause, it has 

 hitherto been supposed that they seriously affect 

 health (see FOG) ; but the general death-rate is 

 not so much increased (see the publications of the 

 Society for the Abatement of the Smoke Nuisance). 

 Doubtless this may in part be owing to the disin- 

 fecting properties of carbon and sulphurous acids, 

 in excess in the atmosphere at such periods. 



Smokeless Powder. See GUN-COTTON, 

 RIFLES, &c. 



Smoking. See HAM, PRESERVED PROVISIONS. 

 For smoker's sore throat, see TOBACCO. 



Smoky Mountain. See APPALACHIANS. 



Smolensk, a town of Russia, and an important 

 railway centre, is situated on steep declivities over- 

 looking the river Dnieper, 244 miles by rail W. by 

 S. of Moscow. It is one of the oldest towns in the 

 empire, having been a place of note in the 9th 

 century, is surrounded by massive walls (now fall- 

 ing into ruin), has a cathedral of the 17th and 18th 

 centuries, and was from the 14th century a power- 

 ful fortress, and as such an object of contention 

 between the princes of Lithuania and Poland on 

 the one side and of Moscow on the other. Here the 

 Russians, under Barclay de Tolly and Bagration, 

 were repulsed by Napoleon, August 17, 1812, 

 when on his march for Moscow. Pop. 34,348. 

 The government has an area of 21,632 so. m. and a 

 pop. of 1,278,117. Almost all the land is farmed 

 by peasant communes. 



Smollett, TOBIAS GEORGE, physician, poet, 

 novelist, journalist, historian, was a Dumbarton- 

 shire gentleman, belonging to that upper class of 

 Scottish society the lawyers and landed gentry 

 to which Sir Walter Scott also belonged. He 

 was educated for the medical profession, but 

 failed to make a living by it. He drifted into 

 literature, and by it he made a precarious living 

 and a lasting name. For the failure of his 

 life in material success he was himself largely 

 to blame. Handsome, upright, generous, of 

 genuine humour, a pleasant companion on occa- 

 sions, he yielded from his youth to (among other 

 mischievous propensities) the evil habit of epi- 

 grammatic sarcasm on one or other of the com- 

 pany he was in. Proud, vindictive, of hot temper 

 and haughty manner, as sensitive as he was satiri- 

 cal, he was a foreordained failure as a doctor, and 

 foredoomed to quarrels, lawsuits, fine and imprison- 

 ment, and money difficulties in general as a jour- 

 nalist. The little poetry he wrote was not of 

 great merit. His history was, as David Hume 

 estimated it, a clever superficial review of the 

 subject. It was the novels that made his name, 

 ami three of them maintain it. 



Smollett was grandson of Sir James Smollett of 

 Bonhill, advocate, member of the Scottish parlia- 

 ment, commissioner of the treaty of Union, and 

 judge in the consistorial court. The fourth son of 

 Sir James and his first wife, daughter of Aulay 

 Macaulay of Ardencaple, was Archibald, who. 



