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The offending resolution of the Leeds Smoke Abatement Committee has been imputed to their belief that the smoke inspector is under local influence, and that inspection is not impartial.
Let us examine what the law in Leeds is and how it is administered. In addition to the Public Health Act of 1875, which is capable of a rather elastic application, we have a local by-law which limits the emission of black smoke from boiler chimneys to a total duration of five minutes in the hour. This is pretty generous compared with some other towns, Manchester allowing one minute in the hour, Nottingham, five minutes in the morning of each day.[1]
Last year a report was drawn up by the Leeds Smoke Abatement Committee, containing hourly observations of 79 boiler chimneys. Two independent inspectors were appointed—both trustworthy men. The object in appointing two inspectors was to have independent testimony. As a matter of fact, the men had no object in exaggerating their report; moreover, they were instructed to observe only one chimney at a time, to keep as exact a record as possible, and, if in doubt as to whether the smoke were opaque or translucent, to give the benefit of the doubt to the chimney. The chimneys were boiler chimneys only, and they were selected at random in different parts of the town. And this was the result: Of 79 chimneys inspected, 51 emitted black opaque smoke for over ten minutes in the hour.
These observations, which lasted three weeks in all, gave evidence of 51 bad defaulters. Yet, if we turn to the annual report of the Medical Officer, we find that there are, on the average, half-a-dozen convictions for smoke nuisance in the year, and perhaps double that number of summonses.
- ↑ In Chemnitz, in Saxony, a manufacturing town with a population not very much smaller than that of Leeds, and its chief competitor abroad in the woollen trade, there is very little smoke. On inquiry there, it was found that not only are smoke-preventing appliances in general use, but in addition to annual prizes given to the stokers for good firing, some of the works offer a small reward to outsiders for informing the manager of the emission of smoke. It is not surprising to find a large ornamental park in the middle of the town, trees lining the main thoroughfares, and, in one factory visited, strawberries growing under the factory wall.
