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709
stitute a nuisance, and penalties are heavier. But as before, the
chimneys of dwelling houses are excluded from control and in the
aggregate they produce a far greater volume of smoke than the
shafts of factories.
Before the Act became operative a letter was addressed by the
Medical Officer of Health to the occupiers of all factory premises
in the borough which it was thought would be affected, setting forth
its provisions, and advising scrutiny of the smoke consuming plant
and the methods of stoking employed. These numbered 28.
Previously there had been complaints about three shafts.
The chief offender has now ceased to cause trouble following the
installation of modern smoke-consuming furnaces. Another was
visited and the method of stoking examined; since then there have
been no further complaints. The third is the chimney of the
Borough destructor, and care is admittedly still required in dealing
with the fuel, which is refuse of variable composition, to prevent a
nuisance at times.
Fouling of the atmosphere by the smoke from open coal fires of
dwelling houses remains to be dealt with on a national scale. The
use of smokeless fuel produced by low temperature carbonisation
processes appears to have passed beyond the experimental stage,
and deserves encouragement at the hands of all public bodies.
Thus, for example, it is reported recently that the Hull Corporation
have decided to build 2,600 houses fitted with special stoves designed
to burn smokeless fuel, that Coalite is being successfully used
throughout the Manchester Town Hall, and that in Sheffield alone
there is a weekly sale of 150 tons of smokeless fuel.
PREMISES AND OCCUPATIONS WHICH CAN BE
CONTROLLED BY BYE-LAWS OR REGULATIONS.
Houses Let in Lodgings.—Bye-laws made by the L.C.C.
under the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, and Sec. 6 of the
Housing Act, 1925.
Under the conditions of housing existing in the Borough at the
present time, the efficacy of these bye-laws has been limited.