m*- w - Clpdigital.org

merits were started that had for their
chief object the harnessing of gases
driven off in this manufacture. Such
gases now are collected and used as fuel
for huge engines which drive dynamos
and produce electrical energy, not only
for operating the plant, but for lighting
purposes for surrounding territory. As
a result of the manufacture of steel there
remains a product known as slag. The
mind of the chemical reformer did not
forget this. He found a way to use it
in the manufacture of cement, and probably
now you could find it in that concrete
house of yours.
These instances of wanton waste are
merely drops in the proverbial bucket.
Salt Lake City throws away $10,000
daily from the fine dust carried up tbe
flues with smelter smoke. In Waterbury,
Connecticut, the brass business
flourishes. A study of this business re­
BLACK SMOKE S89
gained in the recovery of this waste,
within a year or two, you and your family
and a few of your relatives' families
could sidestep the poor house and roll
past in limousines. Waste in smelter
smoke has another disadvantage aside
from monetary. Often the fumes given
off are of a poisonous nature, such as
arsenious oxide. This settles on surrounding
vegetation and often as a result
some farmer's stock is stricken from
grazing on such pasture and the verdure
killed.
When smelters have taken advantage
of Professor Cottrell's invention for the
electrical precipitation of chimney fumes
there will be a new order of things.
Some smelters in the West have already
installed this system. It is one of the
most ingenious devices of the age. Its
installation cost one plant over a million
dollars but it effected a saving to the
THE "SMOKY CITY" AS IT APPEARS TODAY
Pittsburgh no longer deserves this opprobrious title; its smoke nuisance has been mitigated to an almost
unbelievable extent.
veals the fact that this town throws away
seventy-five hundred pounds of zinc
every day. As this floats from the stacks
it is in the form of zinc oxide. At the
time this is written zinc has a market
value of ten cents a pound. Figure this
out and be convinced that with the wealth
company of over $372 each day the plant
was operated. The Pennsylvania railroad
has been experimenting with the
system for the removal of carbon from
its engine smoke. This being the first
one. some trouble has been experienced,
but it is doing the work effectually.