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Smoke Abatement.
The Department's activities with a view to preventing fouling of the atmosphere
by smoke, were maintained during 1he year. Some 117 observations were taken of factory
chimneys, leading to 54 visits to the factories, when everything possible was done to
co-operate with industry.
During the late Autumn, trouble arose in the Canning Town area, and also at the
chemical works at Plaistow. In the latter case the smoke emissions arose from a single
boiler plant. Investigations were carried out following which the National Coal Board
were approached with a view to the supply of a more suitable coal, and a firm of
"mechanical stoker" manufacturers were called in by the firm to watch the plant in
operation. The fire-grate was shortened and following various technical improvements
the C02 recordings rose from 5% to 9-11% with an almost complete cessation of smoke
emissions from the chimney stack. The other case concerned a huge steam-raising plant,
consuming ll6 tons of coal per hour to evaporate approximately 2,080,000 pounds of water
per hour at pressures ranging from 200 to 650 pounds per square inch. It is no exageration
to say that if the percentage of soot was the same per ton of coal used in this
case as it is sometimes in the case of the small plant using 2 or 3 cwts. per hour, a
large section of West Ham and a considerable part of the County of Essex would be
perpetually under conditions resembling the midnight sun of the Arctic regions. It is
indeed fortunate that the owners of this plant, in their constant efforts for still
greater efficiency of combustion, by these very means prevent smoke formation. If we
assume that the coal used, contains from 10 to 15# of ash, one shudders to think what
conditions would be like In West Ham, were it not that considerable sums have been
expended on mechanical means of ash and grit extraction from the flue gases.
So far as the domestic chimney is concerned there had, for some years, been a
reduction in the smoke from this source, but unfortunately a grate which was designed to
burn coke and other smokeless fuels with its wide effective grate area and controlled
draft, is now being made a means by which slack coal has been foisted onto the public.
The grate, being controllable, is now being called a "continuous burning" grate and the
National Coal Board having a quantity of slack from open cast mining to dispose of, sell
It under the name of "Nutty Slack", and it is being recommended for use for banking up
fires to burn all night. This is thoroughly bad practice. The banked-up slack slowly
smoulders, and discharges a continuous stream of oily vapours to atmosphere so that our
night air, Instead of being clean, is now heavily laden with noxious vapours. It is
worthy of note, that during the fog in December, 1952, deaths in the County of London
rose from 945 for the week ended December 6th, to 2,484 the following week, which was a
bigger increase than during the worst of the cholera epidemic of 1866. Prize animals at
the cattle show were killed by the dirty air, yet people merely say, "how shocking", and
do nothing about it.
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