Page 29 - Fundamentals of Air Pollution

8 1. The History of Air Pollution

Fig. 1-4. Engraving (1876) of a metal foundry refining department in the industrial Saar
region of West Germany. Source: The Bettmann Archive, Inc.

III. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

A. 1900-1925
During the period 1900-1925 there were great changes in the technology
of both the production of air pollution and its engineering control, but
no significant changes in legislation, regulations, understanding of the
problem, or public attitudes toward the problem. As cities and factories
grew in size, the severity of the pollution problem increased.
One of the principal technological changes in the production of pollution
was the replacement of the steam engine by the electric motor as the means
of operating machinery and pumping water. This change transferred the
smoke and ash emission from the boiler house of the factory to the boiler
house of the electric generating station. At the start of this period, coal
was hand-fired in the boiler house; by the middle of the period, it was
mechanically fired by stokers; by the end of the period, pulverized coal,
oil, and gas firing had begun to take over. Each form of firing produced
its own characteristic emissions to the atmosphere.