Smoke abatement : a lecture delivered in the lecture room of the Exhibition, July 21st, 1884 / by Ernest Hart.

  • Hart, Ernest, 1835-1898.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Smoke abatement : a lecture delivered in the lecture room of the Exhibition, July 21st, 1884 / by Ernest Hart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    atmosphere inhaled by those who have the misfortune to live in close proximity to him. Such an argument is indeed quite fallacious in view of the many restrictions under which he is put, both as regards the construction of his walls and his sewers, and in respect of infectious disease occurring in his household, and other matters which no less affect his neighbours than himself. It may be added that his present liabilities to the com¬ munity are pecuniarily far more onerous than any which would be imposed by the adoption of one of the many means for securing an abatement of smoke. I now come to the second head, and will endeavour to trace the steps which have been recently taken in collecting evidence as to the extent to which the evil exists and the possibility of abating it, and to indicate the individual efforts which appear to be demanded by the evidence adduced. In the first place I wish to call your attention to the result of the tests as published in the Official Report of the Smoke Abatement Committee, which show that with gas, coke, and anthracite coal it is easy to cook and heat efficiently and economically and prevent smoke absolutely. But taking domestic open grates suited to our existing fire¬ places using what is called Wallsend coal, it is shown that some grates produce six times more smoke than others do, and burn three times more coal to do equal work * The same report shows that steam boilers and other furnaces may be worked absolutely without smoke, and that the average of efficiency of steam boilers tested ranged between 30 per cent, and 76 per cent, of the coal consumed, and in the tests of different coals in the same furnace, the evaporative efficiences ranged between 6*84 and 12*25, or a variation of 557 per cent., thus proving the great necessity which # Marked improvement has, however, been made in open grates and stoves for burning this description of coal, and one firm of manufacturers, who brought out a cheap stove at the South Kensington Exhibition, sent a report to the Council showing that they have sold upwards of 14,000 during the past two years ; and they remark that the public seem ready to burn non-smoky coal if proper stoves for using it are offered at a reasonable price. [L. 28.] B 5