She described life in a city with some of the dirtiest air in America. Mrs. Woodcock wrote this letter exactly one year before a national tragedy persuaded Americans they had to clean up air pollution. Akron's first air monitoring system consisted of 18 wide-mouthed glass jars. They were deployed atop public buildings such as City Hall, East High, Firestone High, Kenmore High, North High, Buchtel High and Garfield High. Officials collected the jars each month, weighed the contents, and extrapolated how many tons of dust had rained down from the sky.
Records show that east side neighborhoods suffered much worse than other parts of town.
But the North High jar measured only 10 tons of dust per square mile and the Firestone High jar only 2 tons. The recipe for Akron smog began with coal smoke. Rubber companies needed heat to vulcanize tires, and that heat came from mountains of high-sulfur Ohio coal, which arrived in town by the trainload. The smoke contained so much sulfuric acid that it sometimes discolored paint and melted nylon stockings. Motorists had to use their headlights all day if the wind wasn't strong enough.