The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-07-05
THE SMOKE NUISANCE.

The Department of Health of the
/ City of Chicago has issued a volumin-
GUS report for the year 1894. 1t is
compiled by Arthur R. Reynolds, NJ.
I D., the Commissioner of Health. 1t
contains data carefully collected and
/ covering 26S pages. It is no doubt of
great value to the municipal authori-
ties and the citizens generally of the
! city of Chicago.
! There is only one subject touched
upon in the volume which we think
would be of present interest to the
! people of Salt Lake city, and that is
/ the smoke nuisance with which
/ special bureau has had to wrestle
Chicago, like Salt Lake City, but in a
much larger degree, has had its diff
culties over the suppression of the
! smoke nuisance. 1t has an ordinance
which has been pronounced by some
people farce.
There are in Chicago $4,000 steam
boilers and 10000 of these are con-
sumers of soft coal They are scat
tered over 1S6 square miles of territory.
Energetic measures have been taken
to 4bate the nuisance caused by the
smoke from the numerous chimneys
which vomit forth their dark clouds
and drop their smut upon the city by
the lake. The damages done to pro-
perty, to stocks of goods and to bust
ness generally by the SCOT and CRIME
from this great nuisance are some
, thing enormous.
1t is generally conceded that where
/ there is smoke there is fire. Many
people in Chicago, as well as in Salt
Lake City. reverse the adage and think
that where there is fire there must be
smoke. The report of the Chicago
Board of Health declares that this
is a superstition founded on lack not
only of knowledge but of observation.
The hottest possible fires do not smoke.
In fact the more fire there is I'M an
equal space the least smoke there is
emitted
One of the causes of the smoke
nuisance, it is stated, is She ignorance
of many architects in the planning of
a boiler room. Another is the ignor-
ance, stupidity and laziness of fire.
men. This is pronounced the cause of
more than one-half of the smoke
nuisance. 1t is claimed that as the
firemen are actually responsible for
so much of the smoke nuisance they
ought TO be held by ordinance legally
responsible for the results Of their bad
stocking. This corresponds with what
The Herald has pointed out repeatedly.
No smoke consumer which has been
devised can be made to act with any
degree of protection if the fireman who
feeds the furnaces will not attend to
his work in the way designated by the
inventor Careful feeding of the fires
is more than one-half the battle.
The smoke bureau in Chicago has
been hindered in its enforcement of
the smoke ordinance by the influence
of politicians, who have interfered in
the action of the law and dn the pro-
lection of the owners of plants whose
aid is desired in the furtherance of
their own political aims. Also by the
opposition coming from the dealers in
soft coal and by the experiments tried
with imperfect or fraudulent coal con-
suners. The bureau has reached the
conclusion that there are smoke pre-
venting devices which can be applied
at small expense and which will hot
only abate the nuisance but will effect
a decided saving in fuel.
The result of careful investigation
shows that there are but two ways to
abate smoke nuisance, viz: First,
the substitution of some form of
smokeless fuel for the soft coal burned
in the ordinary furnace and second,
the adoption of effective smoke-pre-
venting devices on all plants burning
the ordinary grades of soft coal. The
bureau has no doubt that the smoke
nuisance can be prevented and en-
tirely abated.
The municipal authorities of Salt
Lake City would learn something of
benefit to them and to our citizens gen.
orally by reading carefully the report
of the Board Of Health of the city of
Chicago, and particularly in refer
ence to the smoke nuisance which, if
it can be prevented in the great city
of Chicago with its vast number of
smoke-producing plants, can certainly
be entirely abolished in our smaller
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