LONDON FOG.

Evening Post, Volume LXIX, Issue 118, 20 May 1905, Page 14

LONDON FOG.

Tbo London fog Ims been accounted foi again. Some day a genius will discover, perhaps, a practical method of abolishing ib. Hitherto tho smoke of soft coal has been held up to be tho most important factor in it, but a distinguished engineer explain* that the provoking cause of it is steam. Ho calculates that 90 per cent, of thp steam discharged into the air is used in the production of fog! On a rough estimate, ho says, there must bo at least 300 steam locomotives active in the London area. Each of these may be reckoned at about 500-horsqiower— or, say, a total of ISO.OOO-horsepower. Add to this another 500.000-horsepower from other power-generating sources, and tho result is 650,000-hor t iopow«;r of steam discharged into the atmosphere in the most effective fashion for producing an ! impenetrable foj; <«nvolopo! With such j agencies at work, he says, it is safe l<> j affirm that, but for the mtnistrationb of friendly breezes, London could nover see the light of day ! At a temperature of 40 degrees Fah., he explains, 2500 cubic feet of air is fully saturated by one pound weight of water ; so that one pound of added steam, with the at-

mosphere at a temperature of 40 degrees, nnd already three-parts saturated, will bring to fog-point 10,000 cubic feet of air. A steam-plant of 2000-horsupower, using 22 pounds of steam per horsepower hour, will discharge into the air 29 tons of steam per hour— sufficient to produce a fog 20 feet thick and one mile square 1 What 650,000-horsepower stenmgenerating plants fecatieied over London are capable of accomplishing in the way of fog production, may. he adds, bo oiwily be computed. He proposes the capture of all this waste steam and its conversion into electric power.