The Press.
London, England, 1855-02-10 00:00:00

PURIFICATION OF LONDON AIR.

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SINCE active measures have been put into operation during
the last few months in order to abate the smoke nuisance,
not only has the air been cleared with astonishing rapidity,
which was hitherto considered almost impossible, but those
measures to effect it have proved eminently successful and
satisfactory ; and it is stated by the inhabitants of some
of the worst manufacturing districts of the metropolis that
they now not only daily see the improved appearance of
the atmosphere, but feel the beneficial effects of the change
upon their constitutions ; and in consequence of this suc-
cess a number of appliances are being suggested by various
parties in order to meet the requirements of those furnaces
which at present are exempt from the provisions of the
binoke Act, such as potteries, glass works, smiths' forges,
dec., it being notorious that the most inveterate smokers
now are those existing in the Lambeth pottery district.
And, moreover, as it has been stated by Mr. Wright, C.E.,
Government inspector of smoke nuisance, that upwards of
3,000,000 tons of ooal are annually imported into London,
and that only 1,000,000 tons of this quantity are consumed
for manufacturing purposes, and the smoke arising from
which is conveyed into the air by 6,000 tall chimneys,
ranging from twenty-five to two hundred feet high, it is,
therefore, obvious that fully two-thirds, or 2,000,000 tons
of coals are annually consumed by the 390,000 reeking
dwelling-houses of the metropolis, and that a single stack,
Consisting of ten or twelve house chimneys, during the
winter months, will give out quite as much smoke as those
manufacturing chimneys ranging from twenty-five to sixty
feet high, which class proportionately comprises by far the
greatest number of the 6,0110 shafts who are obliged by the
clauses of the Smoke Act to consume their own smoke.
Hence it is evident that by far the largest amount of smoke
created in the metropolis is that emitted from the immense
number of dwelling-houses ; and in sight of this state of
things a variety of plans are being further proposed, not
only to annihilate smoke arising from every drawing-room
fire, but, in fact, that no particle of smoke be allowed to
escape into the air, by which means also chimney-stacks
and chimney-pots, with an infinite variety of ugly and dan-
gerous cowls and deformed pipes, may be dispensed with,
that are now distorting in every kind of formidable shape
the appearance of our private dwellings, and threaten atno
distant day in some disastrous gale of wind to fall down,
and commit fatal depredations amongst unsuspecting
pedestrians. These objects, therefore, once attained,
houses in London will assume the clean and neat appear-
ance of those in eastern countries, and the British capital
become comparatively as free from the pollution of smoke
as a country village.

THE Cleveland (U.S.) Herald states that the Minie
rifle is being adopted into the American service upon
an improved plan. Instead of a short iron tube in-
serted in the ball, it is to be made with a cavity, into
which a portion of the charge of powder will be forced,
and its explosion does the whole work of spreading
the ball so as to completely slug or fill the rifled bore
of the gun, and driving it on its mission of death.
The manufacture of muskets in the United States
armouries is to be abandoned, and the troops are
to be armed with the improved ➢line rifles, with
bayonets.

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bayonets. i.—.