Show THE SMOKE NUISANCE the citizens of salt lake are just awakening to the fact that the solution of the smoke problem of this city is not so easy as many orators would have us believe the trouble has been that most discussion has been by way of putting the cart before the horse in that it has concerned reme id idies ies for the trouble without first diagnosing the exact nature of the casp case we believe it will have to be generally admitted that there will be no solution until some means is adopted of ridding us of the smoke from the many homes of the city the smoke from the large plants can be diminished i 1 0 not completely eliminated by any one of several well known methods the important thing at this time however is to have a competent commission appointed to make a careful scientific study of the causes ot 0 our smoke nuisance and to investigate the possible remedies of those causes with due attention to residence smoke the united states bureau of mines has done a great deal of work along these lines and has published the results of these investigations in a 55 page pamphlet which gives the conditions of affairs in the awen ty eight cities of greater than population most of which are making some effort to do away with the nuisance out of some sixty cities having to population only seventeen are making any effort to handle the smoke the smoke ordinances din ances and results of enforcement in a large number of cities are given in detail A model ordinance is then drawn up to embody the features the bureau considers essential we have not space to take up all of these but the reader is referred to bulletin 49 of the bureau of mines clines for details the main essential seems to be a competent smoke inspection not one carried on by political officials as has been the case here but by mechanical engineers ot several years experience in the construction and management of power plants the smoke inspector should be a qualified engineer by this we mean a professional engineer not a fireman or engine driver his assistants should also be of the same or similar qualifications no new installations of heating plants should be allowed except upon approval of the inspector after perusal of duly submitted detailed plans and an be al a should no changes in construction lowed without his written approval ile he should have power to order necessary it goes sa and changes in existing equipment without saying that he must be a b big i g enough 0 man to grasp all sides of the pr problem kroblen a ad one able to treat all alike one who would be unlikely to make the restrictions burdensome salt lake will never be free from smoke until the problem is attacked in this way the improvement is bound to be slow but there should be little trouble in so regulating the large plants that they will not e emit mit smoke in such quantities as to be a nuisance however the residence problem is the keynote of the whole situation there is little use in suggesting what might be done there are too many suggestions on this line at present which will not stand careful investigation and until such investigations are made by qualified engineers acting under municipal authority we can expect little but irresponsible vapo risings on this problem above all do not fail to ascertain first of all the nature of the problem before seeking remedies in connection with the municipal smoke nuisance a series of articles was published last winter by one in the government service seeking to cast the blame for the trouble upon the smelters shelters sm elters this was an example of a carefully constructed argument reasoning f falsely from doubtful premises which has received no support from those acquainted with the situation nevertheless the layman has been considerably impressed by the dubious reasoning being unable to see the true conditions it is enough to say that any investigations which have been carried out have miserably failed to show any connection between the smelters shelters sm elters and our local smoke nuisance for instance one example of the wrong conclusions embodied in the article under question was that the increase in smoke coincided with the increase in smelting smelling sm elting operations without taking into account the large increase in population and the consequent increase in coal consumption which factor alone is sufficient to account for the increase in smoke however we are glad to note that the public generally is beginning to see and agitators beginning to point out that the only question worthy of serious attention is the curtailment of the production of smoke from the burning of soft coal |