NATURE 



25 



THE PREVENTION OF SMOKE. 



THE people of London have lately experienced much 

 inconvenience and discomfort from the dismal fogs 

 which so often make their appearance at this season of 

 the year. Considerable interest, therefore, attaches to 

 the excellent lecture, by Mr. RoUo Russell, on " Smoke 

 in Relation to Fogs in London," of which we to-day 

 print an abstract. The importance of the subject no 

 one will dispute, yet the questions connected with it 

 have hitherto received very inadequate attention. That 

 much might be done to purify the atmosphere, not 

 only of London, but of all our great towns, is certain ; 

 what is needed is simply that the matter shall be 

 taken in hand in earnest by the Legislature. The 

 existing Acts of Parliament to abate the nuisance arising 

 from the smoke of furnaces in the capital are efficient 

 so far as they go. Inventors have produced mechanical 

 stokers and other means of feeding furnaces, which 

 have resulted not only in the prevention of smoke from 

 such furnaces, but also in commercial advantages to 

 their users, by reason of the increased efficiency and 

 reduced consumption of the furnaces. Police-inspectors 

 appointed to watch the chimneys of manufacturers' 

 premises have done most useful work in preventing 

 the emission of smoke, and London is to be con- 

 gratulated upon the freedom from smoke from such 

 sources. Legislation, however, has not gone far enough 

 even in controlling the emission of smoke from furnaces, 

 for in the provinces there is very great negligence. In some 

 places by-laws exist, in other places there are none ; but 

 wherever they are enforced it is invariably the case that 

 the fines imposed are too small, and that the real offenders, 

 the manufacturers and users of the furnaces, do not 

 adequately feel the effect of the penalties in which they 

 are mulcted. 



The careful observer in London will find that the 

 nuisance from which we suffer does not arise from factory 

 or other industrial chimneys, but from the millions of 

 domestic chimneys. Why should legislation apply only 

 to the comparatively small number of industrial fur- 

 naces in London, and leave the multitude of hotel and 

 private fire-places to emit dense volumes of smoke ? In a 

 letter addressed some time ago to the Times, Mr. Alfred E. 

 Fletcher clearly demonstrated the practicability of having 

 open fire-places in well-warmed and thoroughly ventilated 

 houses without smoke, but there is no law to enforce the 

 application of such a system. To those who have not 

 read Mr. Fletcher's letter, the apparatus may be briefly 

 described. It consists of a coke stove in the basement, 

 a flue to discharge products of combustion, an air-pipe 

 drawing in air around the stove and discharging it when 

 warmed through a grating on the ground-floor. The 

 effect of this simple apparatus is such that warm, but 

 not scorched, pure air ascends up the staircases, into the 

 rooms, passes up the chimneys, and out at the windows, 

 without creating draughts of any kind. The open fire- 

 places in all the rooms may be maintained, but, to insure 

 Vol. XXXIX.— No. 993. 



their smokelessness, they should either have one or other 



of the systems of under-feeding coal grates, or have 

 incandescent blocks heated by gas. The duty of the 

 fire-place is reduced to practically nothing, as the whole 

 house is warmed by pure air from the heating chamber of 

 the coke stove, and the bright open fire need only be 

 maintained to satisfy English prejudice and custom. 



This is one system which has come under our notice, and 

 others might be mentioned. But one fact is enough — viz. 

 that ordinary London houses can be thoroughly well 

 warmed with pure air, well ventilated by known appli- 

 ances, and with this knowledge the public ought to 

 demand immediate legislative action. There is evidence 

 that the necessity of legislation is beginning to be under- 

 stood, for the House of Lords was some time ago ap- 

 proached by Lord Stratheden and Campbell with a Bill " to 

 amend the Acts for abating the nuisance arising from the 

 smoke of furnaces -and. fire-places within the metropolis ; "' 

 and, although this Bill did not pass into law, its importance 

 was such that a Select Committee was appointed to con- 

 sider its terms and to report to the House of Lords. Mr. 

 Ernest Hart gave many thoroughly practical suggestions 

 for the prevention of smoke from domestic fire-places in 

 his evidence before the Select Committee ; and other 

 evidence from scientific, legal, and police authorities was 

 adduced. But at the time the public interest in the 

 question was insufficient to secure the passing of the 

 measure. 



If members of the Houses of Lords and Commons would 

 seriously consider the dangers to life, the inconvenience, 

 the loss, the injury to household effects, and other dis- 

 advantages which the presence of smoke and other im- 

 purities in the air occasion, and would turn their attention 

 to the very deficient legislative measures now existing, a 

 speedy remedy would no doubt be effected. The necessity 

 for the universal adoption of smoke-preventing appliances 

 would probably bring out much latent inventive talent 

 from the public. By reference to the Report of the Counci^ 

 of the National Smoke Abatement Institution, we find that 

 inventors and manufacturers are continually introducing 

 better means of consuming fuel. The greatest improve- 

 ment is in apparatus for industrial furnaces, because it is 

 with these appliances only that Acts of Parhament deal. 

 As compared with some tests made by the Smoke Abate- 

 ment Institution in 1881-82, tests made in 1886-87 show 

 an apparent economy of 31 per cent, in consumption of 

 fuel combined with complete smoke prevention. In the 

 Transactions of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain — 

 in a paper on smoke abatement, read by Mr. Russell 

 Duncan at the Bolton Congress — we find that inventors 

 are working in the right direction, and that during the 

 last ten years over 4200 patents have been taken out 

 for various appliances having for their object the pre- 

 vention of smoke and the more complete combustion of 

 fuel. 



An examination of the work done by the National 

 Smoke Abatement Institution will show that if legislative 

 measures could be carried it would not be necessary to 

 restrict the use of one kind of fuel in favour of another, 

 but that by means of suitable appliances houses might 

 be heated by ordinary fuels— coal (bituminous and non- 

 bituminous), coke, oil, and gas, or by improved systems 

 of circulating warmed air and heated water. 



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