The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-11-19

Salt Lake City, Nov. 1S.-Do you 7
dislike smoke? Do. you resent the
intimate way in which it intrndes
into your eyes. ears, throat and
nose! II SO, you can help the rest
of suffering mankind. which shares
this antipathy, by adopting few
simple precautions. You can see
that your household heating plant
is in good working condition, and
that the person who operates 1t has
some reason for thinking he can
do so. |
Many and mysterious have been
| the Investigations made Of smoke
Numerous devices have been rec
commended for combating it. But 1t
remained for Salt Lake City to
prove that the cause Of most smoke !
is mere carelessness, due to in
f! efficient heating plants and ignor- !
ant operators. 1t came to pass like
this:
Salt Lake City has always had a |
peculiarly irritating smoke prob
lem. For six or seven months IN
the year the Utah capital is an ideal
place of residence. 1t is over four
thousand feet high; its climate is
dry and, balmy, and it has some OF
the most attractive home sites to
be found in this country. But in
the late fall and winter when the
air becomes chilly and artificial heat
necessary, the city sheds a good
deal of its charm. For then it is en-
veloped in a dense fog of smoke,
which blots out whole portions OF
the landscape, ruins the disposi-
lions of industrious housewives, and
almost pbscures the bright Utah
sun.
Yet Salt Lake is not a great in
dustrial city like Pittsburgh and
Cleveland, where one expects to see.
smoke. It manufactures various
things, of course, and it is the larg-
est smelling center of the west, but
neither the manufacturing nor the
smelling accounts for the smoke.
The cause lies in the beautiful pro-
|, tecting hills. These cut the city
,, off from draft, 60 that when the
, smoke rises from its chimneyS
there is no wind to blow it away.
Naturally, this state Of affairs
has been a great worry to such an
:, enterprising town as this, SO last
fall it called upon the government
for scientific assistance. The gov
ernemtn sent Osborn Monnect, fuel
3 engineer of the United States bu-
reau of mines, to make an investi-
;. cation by a cooperative arrange
s ment among that body, the Univer-
: sity of Utah and the municipality
d Mr.. Monnett spent several months
e in Salt Lake City, making all sorts
7. of tests and experiments, sometimes
e on the ground, sometimes in an
d aeroplane and often on the TIRES
hold OF local heating plants.
e A MINDLESS City.
q The result of this investigation
while peculiar to the special prob
Il lem of Salt Lake City-namely, its
: lack of wind-should also be Of
great interest to all other cities ir-
q ritated by smoke problems. Fol
g they prove conclusively, as has been
> said, that smoke is largely due tt
II carelessness and faulty equipment
in the operation of individual heat
: ing plants.
Mr.. Monnett's first act was to test
the local fuel supply, which many
4 janitors in the city Indignantly as
q serted was astonishingly inefficient
Il He was therefore surprised to fine
\ it of higher quality than that uset
j by most western cities, and certain
ly not to blame for the smoke,
= The next step was to analyze tn
= smoke itself and discover It's var1
Gus ingredients.
"The most harmful ingredient o
II smoke pollution" declared MI
;" Monnett, sis SCOT, which result
r from the burning of coal in larg
ID industrial plants, domestic stove
and furnaces. 1t is a mixture o
lie carbon, tarry products Of coal dis
T? tillation, sulphur acids and ash
Taken in with the air we breathe
n it lodges in the throat and nasa
IN passages, and the finer particles &c
ne into the lungs. The presence Of Ia
ar and sulphur acids makes it an &C
I'd tive irritant and predisposes tn
breather to throat trouble an
s" pneumonia. 1t is this SCOT whic
also soils the clothing and injure
vegetation"
ut Curiously enough, Mr.. Monnet
ne found that the most harmful kin
D of smoke was caused not by tn
It, large industrial or high-pressur
d. plants, but by the smaller housi
he hold stoves and furnaces.
IS "Smoke from high pressu,
plants" he says, tends to be hig
nd In ash and contains little tarry ma
ter. Smoke from low-pressul
vs. plants and domestic stoves is tt
by harmful kind. being higher In tarl
nd acids and oily products Of combu
We ton.
SIS "The study OF the effect Of smoi
Id on health il still In the experimei
70 tai stage" he adds, "but 1t Is agree
er that the long-containued breathir
'e- OF smoke-polluted air lowers phys
all cal vitality.
list 1T has also been proved that We,
dS