LONDON SMOKE.

Shannon News, 18 September 1923, Page 4

LONDON SMOKE.

SCIENTIFIC PROBLEMS.

The prevention of the smoke nuisance in London and other big cities is at present occupying the closest attention of engineers and council authorities, and the recent official inquiry into the matter has made it quite clear that the pollution of the atmosphere by smoke can be obviated, and that there are means available whereby a smokeless city can be attained, states a writer in the London Daily Mail. When the amount of smoke is reduced there will be far less fog during the winter months. Fog originates in small particles of dust which pervade the air. When the air is still and its temperature falls below a certain point the watery vapour in it condenses and takes the form of minute water globules, which in the aggregate become what is known as fog. Each globule of London fog is not- merely a microscopic sphere of water, but is also built round a particle of carbon which is. frequently accompanied by a quantity of sulphurous acid from.the combustion of coal.

English people have hitherto shown a preference for open fireplaces. Closed stoves and hot air and water systems all transfer their heat to the surrounding air almost entirely by the process of convection, as opposed to radiation, by which most of the heat sent out from an open coal fire reaches the parts of a room which are adjacent to it. The combustion of coal in an open grate, moreover, is a most wasteful method of utilising the heat elements in the fuel, while the process results in a maximum amount of smoke —and fog. One might say that the average amount of sold carbon" sent into the air as smoke in the case of open domestic fires is from 3 to 5 per cent, of the fuel consumed, as against only about 0.75 per cent, in well-constructed and carefully fired boiler furnaces, which goes to show that as a fog and smoke producer the boiler furnace is much behind the domestic fire. While ho action has been taken to enforce the smokeless method among householders, the public are tiring of the old conditions and are anxious to get rid of the old-fashioned cooking range. What is wanted is a smokeless fuel that will kindle and bum in an open grate, and engineers would be well advised to develop investigations in this direction.