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1903]
210
every firm can do, provided that reasonable care is taken in the stoking of the
furnaces, that these furnaces are properly constructed, that "smoke consumers"
be provided, and that suitable coal be used. Efficient stoking, which includes
the proper regulation of air to the furnaces, is, however, the great essential, and
if that be not carried out then "smoke consumers" are likely to fail. The firms
who do not endeavour to prevent smoke are neglectful of their best interests, for
the escape of black smoke means the waste of fuel, which in turn means unnecessary
loss of money. This fact seems to escape their attention for they forget
that black smoke consists largely of particles of unconsumed carbon. Perfect
combustion should, therefore, be aimed at, for, thereby, the greatest amount of
heat together with economy of coals will be attained. The latter object is no
small one in the light of the fact that the coal supply of this country has its
limitations, and, indeed, it is alleged, that assuming that the output continues
to increase at the same rate as heretofore it will be exhausted in a little over
a century.
The burning of coal lessens the vitalizing power of the atmosphere through
the large quantities of carbonic acid gas that are set free, one ton of coal being
estimated to create three tons of that compound. It also produces carbon
monoxide, aqueous vapour, certain compounds of sulphur, as well as soot and
organic matter. It is the production of these impurities which makes it so
necessary that there should be a close watch kept on those places which do not
adopt proper methods to ensure efficient combustion and thereby the prevention
of smoke nuisances.
The health of households is also directly affected by a smoky atmosphere,
so that their members become pale and anaemic and lose their vigour; it also
prevents the opening of windows to ventilate the rooms and passages of houses
and to expel the polluted and used up air which they contain. So long
ago as the time of Charles I. the well known diarist Evelyn in his pamphlet
The Fumifugium wrote of the smoke produced by coal, "It is this which
scatters and strews about those black and smutty atoms upon all things where
it comes, insinuating itself into our very secret cabinets and most precious
repositories. Finally it is this which diffuses and spreads a yellowness upon
our choicest pictures and hangings; which is like Avernus to fowls, and kills
our bees and flowers abroad, suffering nothing in our gardens to bud, display
themselves or ripen; so that our anemones and many other choicest flowers
will by no industry be made to blow in London or the precincts of it, unless
they be raised on a hotbed, and governed by extraordinary artifice to accelerate