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75
It was accepted that in the furnaces to be erected combustion would
be so complete that little, if any, smoke would be sent out. It was the
problem of grit and sulphur gases which required solution. It had been
proved to the satisfaction of the Court of Appeal that sulphur fumes
from a large power station had definitely deleterious effects on vegetation,
crops, and live stock (Farnworth v. Manchester Corporation) and theie
was therefore ample justification for the volume of protest which
grew around the Battersea project. In the case of Westminster grave
fears were entertained that ancient buildings such as Westminster
Abbey might suffer seriously. The stone work of the Houses of
Parliament, a building not a century old, has crumbled to such an
extent because of the acid quality of the polluted atmosphere, that
restoration will cost many thousands of pounds. During the past 150
years, much wealth has been spent in periodic restoration of the Abbey
from similar causes. Considerations as to the probable effects on the
public health were also reasons which induced a deputation to approach
the Minister of Health and the Minister of Transport to ask for some
guarantee that all fumes would be rendered harmless or alternatively,
that the power station should be built in some other district where
less harm would result. The Ministers pointed out that one-third of the
new station was already in course of erection and special apparatus
and measures were to be employed to wash sulphur fumes out of the
. flue gases. They thought it would be well to await the results of the
working of this section of the power station and the effects of the new
methods of sulphur elimination without prejudging the issue.
The Government Chemist has issued an interim report on the methods
of sulphur elimination to be employed at Battersea. The interim report
is to some degree favourable to the methods of elimination, but it is
obvious that further and more comprehensive experiments are required
before he is fully satisfied that complete disappearance, particularly
of sulphurous acid, is possible. The methods which he has so far had
submitted to him are those of gas scrubbing—sprays of heated Thames
water meeting the gases in the flues. The water naturally somewhat
alkaline absorbs the acid flue gases.
The whole matter will again be considered when the final report by
the Government Chemist is issued.
Towards the end of the year, the Council came to the conclusion
that it might serve a useful purpose to measure the degree and nature of
atmospheric pollution as experienced in the City from day to day, and to
contrast the data obtained with those to be obtained after the power
(9583) c2