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Show I SMOKE IN THE CITIES. Carping critics have been busy of late condemning the city commission rOf Salt Lake for its failure to Bolve ithe smoke nuisance. Every commu ;nity is more or less afflicted with the know-It all. But the United States bu reau of mines has Issued a bulletin i on the subject of smoke which proves pthat the solving of the problem is most. difficult. The prevention of objectionable emoko in the manufacturing and business busi-ness centers of large cities la a prob lem that cannot be easily solved, the bureau of mines declares At present no city in which a considerable quan tlty of bituminous coal is burned is free from smoke. The cities of the east have avoided this problem by n general ub of the smaller sizes of an -thracite coal. For this reason it is not surprising that the greatest improvement im-provement in the methods of burn ing bituminous coal'haB been made in the central and v, estern states. Stoves, ranges house-heating boil- H rule, Intended for the use of anthra- H cite coal or coke Whenever bltuml- H noas coal is burned in such furnaces I all the principles of combustion are H violated and smoke results The sup ft ply or anthracite coal i limited, and, H except for domestic purposes, such B rcoal is little used outside of the terrl- fll ' tory adjacent to the mlneB. H The larger cities of the eastern j B .states, which consume practically all' H the available supply of the smaller H sizes of anthracite coal for power Hj I and heating purposes, now find it nec- H . eseary to supplement this fuel with H la considerable tonnage of bituminous H coal. Except the power generated by H waterfalls, the large parr of tho heat H and power used in tho United States Hj Is obtained from the burning of coal H It Is evident, then, that for the most H part this country must depend on Its H bituminous coal for manufacturing. H railroad and power plant purposes H 'This mean that we must Improve our usual methods of burning bituminous coal or continue to suffer from the lack of economy and the smoke resulting re-sulting from imperfect combustion. The smoke problem Is nearly as old as civilization itself, for coal was be ing uiined in Great Britain about the tenth century. In 1306. Edward I Issued Is-sued a proclamation prohibiting the burning of coal in the city of London, because of "sulferous smoke and savor of the firing. ' In 1618 the peo I pie of London petitioned parliament to prevent the importation of coal into the city Beginning about 1750. when steam was applied to industrial purposes, pur-poses, coal began to be used more ex- ! tensively, and consequently smoke be- ' came more abundant. In 1819 the gov eminent appointed house of com mons committee to inquire Into the j matter, and another committee was I appointed in 1 S43. Two reports were issued in 1843 and 1845. but no legis- i laiion was passed other lnvesliga tions were made in 1846, 1854 and 1866. and lioally, in 1875. the public health act was passed, deallns with ihe questiton of smoke. in offering advice as to how smoke i may be avoided In the residential dis-trict, dis-trict, the bureau of mines says: "Smoke prevention in the household house-hold fire is a particularly difficult 1 problem, because the household fire is usually a small one and the house , holder naturally gives it a minimum amount of attention, which, or course, is conducive to the making of smoke The simplest way to prevent the formation for-mation or smoke In household fires is to use fuel which cannot smoke even when no care is taken to prevent smoking. This means a fuel which j has less than 10 or 12 per cent vola tile matter in It. Anthracite coal, which contains only 3 or 4 per cent volatile matter, and coke are admlr able for this purpose." This suggestion may be of value to eastern homes, but as anthracite is not obtainable In the went except at prohibitive prices, the advice Is lost to us. |