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68
ATMOSPHERE.
We live at the bottom of an ocean of air and at certain spots on this bottom
we crowd together in towns and cities. A city discharges its emanations into
this ocean, and from this ocean at the same spot a city takes its air supply.
The rate of dilution by diffusion is very slow and the rate of purification by
vegetation is slower still, so that the air of the cleanest of cities is impure, and
pollution rapidly accumulates until reduced mechanically by high winds and
heavy rainfalls. The grossest forms of pollution of the air of cities are dust
and smoke, and in addition the effluvia of various industrial and trade processes.
Smoke.—Dealing for the moment with smoke, the main sources from whence
it issues are trade premises, locomotives, and dwelling houses, but the last do
not come under the ban of the law controlling atmospheric pollution.
With regard to trade premises, the chimney shafts in St. Pancras are now
kept under more frequent observation, and notices are being more frequently
served to abate the production of smoke. Smoke is not only deleterious to the
common air supply, but also a wasteful consumption of fuel and a loss to the
producer. Much money would be saved if it were better understood that
unconsumed carbon (smoke) is waste of fuel and waste of heat.
With regard to locomotives, St. Pancras is provided with a large amount of
open space by the railway Companies, but this open space grows no vegetation
to assist in purifying the air. On the contrary, it contributes considerably
towards polluting it with smoke and fine ash from locomotive engines.
For the better understanding of the powers of the Council, the enactments
dealing with smoke are set out below:—
SMOKE.
Public Health [London) Act, 1891.
24.—(a) Any fireplace or furnace which does not, as far as practicable,
consume the smoke arising from the combustible used therein,
and which is used for working engines by steam, or in any mill,
factory, dyehouse, brewery, bakehouse, or gaswork, or in any
manufacturing or trade process whatsoever ; and
(b) Any chimney (not being the chimney of a private dwelling-house)
sending forth black smoke in such quantity as to be a nuisance;
shall be nuisances liable to be dealt with summarily under this
Act, and the provisions of this Act relating to those nuisances
shall apply accordingly:
Provided that the Court, hearing a complaint against a
person in respect of a nuisance arising from a fireplace or furnace
which does not consume the smoke arising from the combustible
used in such fireplace or furnace, shall hold that no nuisance is
created, and dismiss the complaint, if satisfied that such fireplace
or furnace is constructed in such manner as to consume as far as
practicable, having regard to the nature of the manufacture or
trade, all smoke arising therefrom, and that such fireplace or
furnace has been carefully attended to by the person having the
charge thereof.