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derived from the burning in air of fuels, whether solid, liquid or gaseous. Any reduction in this
unavoidable minimum' of pollution can only be brought about by the more efficient use of fuel and
by reducing the total amount of fuel burned, particularly that used for space heating, especially in
houses. Today far too much of the fuel burned, even in modern appliances, is wasted by allowing
the heat produced to perform no useful function and to escape through the walls, roof and windows.
The majority of houses in this country are constructed of traditional materials and in a way which
allows most of the heat intended to warm the house to escape rapidly. All this wasted heat is
wasted fuel and the extra fuel burned to make good these heat losses produces unnecessary
atmospheric pollution. Windows are a most important channel for heat loss and the trend today is
to provide enormous areas of glass windows in modern buildings through which the heat losses
must be correspondingly large.
By attention to proper heat insulation in the construction of all new buildines and conversions
with the provision of double glazing to all windows, and the use of more efficient heating methods,
e.g. central heating or closed stoves in lieu of open fires, the total amount of fuel burned in the
country for space heating could be significantly reduced. This would make a valuable contribution
towards reducing unavoidable atmospheric pollution and at the same time would have economic
advantages.
Another important source of heat wastage, and thus of avoidable atmospheric pollution, is
the traditional provision of slipper baths in most new houses and conversions. A slipper bath
takes a relatively large volume of hot water and heating this requires the burning of fuel either in
the home, at the power station or at the gas works. The more hot water we use the more the
atmospheric pollution produced. On the other hand, shower baths use only a small amount of hot
water and by providing these instead of slipper baths in all new houses and conversions over the
country, saving in fuel would result with, again, considerable benefits from further reduction in
atmospheric pollution.
There has recently been concern in official quarters about the adequacy of the country's
water supplies for the future and the need to conserve these has been emphasised. It frequently
happens, where hot water supplies are concerned, that heat wastage and water wastage go hand
in hand, e.g. a shower bath compared with the slipper bath mentioned above. A few years ago a
special tap was introduced for use in the lavatories of schools and factories, etc., with the primary
object of economising water and heat consumption. Seven wash-hand basins at a technical college,
fitted with these sprinkler mixing taps saved 43,000 gallons of water in a year, of which 39,000
gallons was hot water. This saving in hot water represented a saving of one ton of coal in a year
and this from only seven wash-hand basins! The widespread introduction of improved plumbing
devices of this sort over the whole country would result not only in an immense saving of water
and fuel but would also give an equally valuable reduction in atmospheric pollution. The cost of
the appliances would be offset by the saving in fuel and water.
In my opinion it is none too early to be lookine ahead along these lines and adonting
throughout the country these modern developments if the atmosphere of the future is to be improved
and kept as far as possible pure. This surely should be our aim.
Although measurements of smoke and sulphur dioxide are made in large numbers at sites all
over the country, these are made virtually at ground level and there is no information available as
to how the concentrations of these contaminants vary in a vertical direction at a given point,
With the building in this Borough of the Empress State Building, which is over 300 feet high, an
opportunity was offered for investigating this interesting problem. It was the writer's hope that a
number of collecting stations could have been installed on different floors. Unfortunately the
building was taken over by a Government department and the idea had to be abandoned. However,
the suggestion was passed to the Warren Spring Laboratory of the Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research in the expectation that it would be possible to interest a private undertaking
with a similar tall building in another part of London to permit the experiment to be carried out
there.