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found by experience to be likely to give trouble from smoke emission
are the furnaces used for special purposes.
The most important of these special furnaces are those consuming
wood waste of which there are nine. Unless great care is taken
to charge the furnaces properly and to arrange furnace conditions to
suit the varying types of wood, either black smoke or wood ash will
be emmitted from the chimney mouth.
Reclaiming metal from scrap cable is also a process which can
give rise to black smoke. All too often it is carried on with no
apparatus, the cable being placed in a heap and fired. There is
provision for dealing with nuisances arising in this way in Section 16
of the Clean Air Act, 1956, which is not yet in operation. To succeed
in any action under the Section it will be necessary to prove that a
nuisance has been caused. This necessity may militate against the
use of the power as frequently as one would like.
It was necessary in respect of factory premises of the Co-
operative Wholesale Society Ltd. to issue a statutory notice with
regard to emission of smoke from an incinerator used for burning
wood waste. Subsequently substantial changes were made in the
equipment provided and the methods of operation, including employ-
lent of additional personnel.
domestic Smoke
Whilst the pollution of the atmosphere from the more obvious
industrial chimneys is the subject of much public comment, an equal
amount of pollution from domestic chimneys does not always arouse
the same interest There has been a change since the days when the
factory chimney belching black smoke was the symbol of industrial
prosperity. Most industrialists now recognise that smokeless combustion
means efficient combustion and are susceptible to an appeal to
their pocket if not to their public spirit.
Householders, however, are more conservative and require a
great deal of persuasion before they will change their habits. Many
have prejudices which are hard to break down and most feel that to
use a which costs more per ton means that heating their homes
will necessarily be more expensive.
No doubt, a number of years hence, home heating by burning
coal in a basket grate will be looked back upon as being as archaic
as the log fire in the centre of the baronial hall with the smoke
finding its way out through the roof.
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