The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-03-08
BY SYDNEY ESPEY.

many -Sl0eu ana tlreleSS Ola Cndp We
call Uncle Sam is on the warpath
against that modern form of the
black plague" the soft-coal smoke
evil. One of Uncle Sans experts, II,
NJ Wilson. chief engineer of the ex-
pertinent station of the United States
Bureau OF Mines in Pittsburg. thinks
the smoke nuisance costs the country
six hundred million dollars a year.
Here is part of what he has TO say on
the subject:
The damage done annually in the
large towns OF the United States by
smoke would build in every city OF
one hundred thousand inhabitants il
this country a structure equal 10 the
Congressional Library, considered the
most beautiful building in the world
There would be left over enough &C
maintain the army and navy for the
current year-and then plenty left, AT
ter that, TO build the Capitol at Wash
ington.
This financial damage. after years
of careful computation and compari
son with the reports of scores of ex
perts. | figure at six hundred million
dollars annually"
If we feel inclined TO doubt Mr.. Viii
sons conclusions, there are other sour
ces of information TO which we may
refer. In a recent edition of that high
class and conservative trade paper
known as the Iron Age" we find the
following table:
Annual loss in Cleveland from
smoke, 5000, 900.
Annual loss in Cincinnati from
smoke. 5000 900.
Annual loss in Pittsburg from smok,
SIC, 000, 900.
Annual loss in Chicago from smok,
81, 1000, 900.
Estimated annual financial loss il
the United States, FIVE hundred mi
lion dollars. or seventeen dollars 70
every man, woman, and child. living il
large cities.
! Those figures, il IS stated, were OF
tanned from the smoke experts and co
lege professors delegated by thos
cities to estimate the damage, an
were only recently published afte
many months of careful expert work
More than that, il is also stated, tn
damage goes far beyond the financia
losses set forth in the foregoing tablt
Here are some other items charge
to the smoke nuisance:
! Untold damage done to clothing
furniture, buildings, and trees, street
and parks.
Additional expense of lightin
houses and offices in the daytime. du
to the clouds of smoke shutting OF
the sunlight.
Large increase in the death rat
from lung diseases, caused by breatl
ing sulphuric acid and other poison
in the smokeladen air.
Free as air should be changed I
dear as air." says Mr.. Goler. healt
officer of Rochester, n. Y. "Smok'
polluted air." he continued, attack
all the organs, but chiefly the lung
The poor man and for large part {
his time the business man, mu:
breathe this poisonous stuff, and whe
he suffers the doctors prescribe fc
him what it is impossible for him
get in any large town-pure air"
+ Uncle Sans experts declare there
no good excuse for the failure of th
country to rid itself of the smoke evi
Bad firing, more than soft coal.
appears, is to blame for the blac
clouds that pour forth from so man
smokestacks. The government expe'
had demonstrated numerous times
Pittsburgh, it is recorded, that the
can fire any chimney with the softei
coal and yet not raise a single clou
of black smoke.
| Forty-three per cent of Chicago
smoke. it is said, comes from the el
gines of railroads passing through til
city. To prove that there is no gres
difference between a factory chime
and a locomotive smokestack-so fs
as the firing principle is concerned
the following is quoted from a repo
of Mr.. Angus Sinclair, president of ii
Society of Locomotive Engineers:
"A locomotive fireman in a run
two hours used eight thousand pount
. of coal, making steam with difficult
and filling the air with smoke. tt
: next day. another fireman, with Il
. same engine and making the same n
J in the same time, used four thousan
five hundred pounds of coal, makir
plenty of steam and no smoke. Resu
of intelligent firing, saving of fort
two per cent of fuel and no smoke"
Smokeless fires are not only the be
J in every way, but they are also Il
! nh do 10 l.