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with more or less old-established works. Immediately attention
was drawn to any contravention of the Coal Smoke Abatement
Act, 1926, the persons concerned shewed every willingness and
took all possible action to overcome the trouble and no legal
proceedings were taken. In one case a large laundry installed
an oil burning plant, but owing to the tax on crude oil found it
necessary to revert to coal on the grounds of economy. In other
cases certain factory owners have installed special "smoke
eliminators" with varying degrees of success.
Two complaints of smoke nuisance were such as to require
special comment:—
(a) Smoke nuisance from chimney shafts at the Gas
Light
and Coke Company's Works at Brentford.
Numerous complaints of this were received from residents
and also from the Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at
Kew. The trouble was found to be due to cracked retort
chambers at the works. Every effort was made by the Company
to mitigate the trouble, but with only partial success, and it was
not until the present year, when a new battery of retorts was
brought into action, that anything like good results were
obtained.
(b) Smoke nuisance from temporary steam raising plants
installed by the Cleveland Bridge Company—a firm of
Contractors carrying out the work in connection with the
West Middlesex Sewerage Scheme.
During the construction of a section of low level sewers in
the Chiswick Area in connection with the above scheme, the
contractors had to install temporary steam raising plants at
two points in the district, not only for crane work but to maintain
an air pressure in the tunnels to keep back subsoil water.
This was necessary as electric current was not available. By
reason of difficulties met with underground, it often became
necessary to force the fires of the furnaces, with a resultant
smoke nuisance.
The contractors realised the seriousness of the complaints,
but pointed out that they were required to employ men from
the distressed areas, not all of whom could be considered efficient