Page 26 - Fundamentals of Air Pollution

II. The Industrial Revolution 5

Fig. 1-1. Lead smelting furnace. Source: G. Agricola, "De Re Metallica," Book X, p. 481,
Basel, Switzerland, 1556. Translated by H. C. Hoover and L. H. Hoover, Mining Magazine,
London, 1912. Reprinted by Dover Publications, New York, 1950.

The predominant air pollution problem of the nineteenth century was
smoke and ash from the burning of coal or oil in the boiler furnaces of
stationary power plants, locomotives, and marine vessels, and in home
heating fireplaces and furnaces. Great Britain took the lead in addressing
this problem, and, in the words of Sir Hugh Beaver (3):

By 1819, there was sufficient pressure for Parliament to appoint the first of a
whole dynasty of committees "to consider how far persons using steam engines
and furnaces could work them in a manner less prejudicial to public health and
comfort." This committee confirmed the practicability of smoke prevention, as so
many succeeding committees were to do, but as was often again to be experienced,
nothing was done.
In 1843, there was another Parliamentary Select Committee, and in 1845, a third.
In that same year, during the height of the great railway boom, an act of Parliament
disposed of trouble from locomotives once and for all (!) by laying down the dictum
that they must consume their own smoke. The Town Improvement Clauses Act