MEASURING AIR POLLUTION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLII, Issue 9374, 1 November 1921, Page 5

MEASURING AIR POLLUTION

The importance of maintaining the purity of the atmosphere of towns was never more widely recognised than it is to-day. Much has been written about the subject from the standpoint of public health, and also from that of preserving buildings from decay. In order to put the subject on a scientific basis, a special ocmmittee attached to the British Meteorological Office has, during recent years, carried out a long series of experiments. An instrument was devised for actually recording the amount of smoke and dirt m the air throughout the day and night. This instrument consisted of a piece of filter paper, through a portion of which air was drawn for about ten minutes at a time. At the end of each ten minutes a fresh piece of paper was moved to the orifice and another charge taken. The depth of the shadow thus produced formed a measure of the amount of dirt m the air. These experiments disclosed the fact that the domestic chimney was responsible for more of the dirt m the atmosphere than the factory chimney. Attention is now being given by British Public Health authorities to the question of how far gas and electricity can be made to replace the open coal fire, and as to the prospects of producing a smokeless fuel from coal at. a low cost.