THE HISTORY OF AIR POLLUTION ANCIENT TO VICTORIAN TIMES.

THE HISTORY OF AIR POLLUTION

ANCIENT TO VICTORIAN TIMES

SUMERIAN/BABYLONIANSUMERIAN/BABYLONIAN ATTITUDES TOWARDS SMOKEATTITUDES TOWARDS SMOKE

my mood and heart. As if during the night watch ……like excrement.…… my countenance like smoke.

A hymn to Inana for Išme-Dagan: c.2.5.4.

Don't cause the oven in a man's house to smoke… it will ruin the bread.

Proverbs: from Nibru: c.6.2.1

Temple of Inana

RELIGIOUS CONTEXTSRELIGIOUS CONTEXTS

Typically religions see a relation between cleanliness and closeless to God

Hence pollution and defilement often linked…

Mary Douglas: Purity and Danger - an analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo (1966)

VICTORY STELA VICTORY STELA OFOF KING KING PIANKHI

TEXT

“Ur was a stench to the nose for lack of air to breathe and threw itself on its belly…”

Seige of Hermopolis734 BC

ASTYMOMOI ASTYMOMOI

In Aristotle’s Athenian Politics - duties of the astymomoi who are responsible among other things for rubbish to be deposited beyond city walls

RECORDED FREQUENCYRECORDED FREQUENCY

0

0.05

0.1

936-1392

1392-1910174-936

China 1150BC Korea 174AD

Koryosa

Young-Sin Chun KMAByun, Kwan Shik (1939) Nu Gak...

AIR AND HEALTHAIR AND HEALTH

The Hippocratic Corpus had linked air and health

Vitruvius on Architecture sought the proper location of dwellings

Seneca and culinary odours

LEGISLATING LEGISLATING THE URBAN ENVIRONMENTTHE URBAN ENVIRONMENT

Sextus Julius Frontinus (Curator Aquarum) Governor of Britain ~AD75-78

Improved Rome's water improved the air (miasmatic theory) Rise of the professional administrator Moving industry (glass making) to suburbs

“Infamis aer…”“Gravioris caeli…”

Frontinus The Aqueducts of Rome

SMOKE LIKE WATERSMOKE LIKE WATER

Urban servitudes Roman nuisance law treated neighbourly

behaviour Smoke often treated like water… you

could no more let water drain across a house than smoke

BLACKENNED BUILDINGSBLACKENNED BUILDINGS

Your fathers' guilt you still must pay, Till, Roman, you restore each shrine, Each temple, mouldering in decay, And smoke-grimed statue, scarce divine

Odes and Carmen Saeculare Horace

MIDDLE EASTMIDDLE EAST

Hebrew Bava Batra and Ktubot describe laws:

“You can't take a wife out of the village to a city…”

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaqi (“Rashi” 1040-1105) says this is “because the city is crowded and has no air.... In the village the air is nice"

Arab inheritance of classical learning meant an understanding of focus air pollution and health by 10th C.

At-TamAt-Tamĭĭmi (932-1000)mi (932-1000)

The black storm which is located in Hijaz and surroundings – is the smoky vapour which asphyxiates and kills

MEDIEVAL ENGLANDMEDIEVAL ENGLAND

Fuedal society at its height in 13th century

London an active capital Fast developing law under

Edward I

Edward IEdward I

AIR POLLUTION INCIDENTSAIR POLLUTION INCIDENTS

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12In

cid

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tsBIG CHANGE LATE 13TH C

Royal proclamations in 1285, 1288, 1306

Order of 23 July 1264 “purvey for the King in London… a boat load of sea-coal”

FUEL FOR FUEL FOR MAKING CEMENTMAKING CEMENT

Building at Westminster 1253 Henry III ordered oak brushwood

Henry IIIHenry III

PRESSURES TO CHANGE FUELPRESSURES TO CHANGE FUEL

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Wood

Coal

POLLUTIONPOLLUTIONSEASONS c1300SEASONS c1300

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3000

J F M A M J J A S O N D

Lime/tonne

Summer building works:extensive production of lime

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2

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J F M A M J J A S O N D

IncidentsAir pollution incidentsmostly in summer

In 1950s smoke a winterproblem - household heating

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J F M A M J J A S O N D

Smoke1950

Extramurality

Punishments:Hanging

Decapitation

Grievous Ransoms

Apollo November 2004, p68

MEDIÆVAL SOURCESMEDIÆVAL SOURCES NO CHIMNEYS

SALT in LSALT in LÜNEBURGÜNEBURG

Braun and HogenbergCivitates Orbis Terrarum (1572) from woodcut Sebastian Munster (1550)

INDUSTRIAL INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION in ASIAPOLLUTION in ASIA

Use of coal relatively late, so sulphur emissions comparatively low.

Nevertheless early complaints of pollution, e.g 18th C breweries in Bangkok Hiroshige: Lime kilns

at Hashiba Ferry, Sumida RiverOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo

YORK 1381YORK 1381

Poll Tax establishes industrial locations

Annual wood use to calculate smoke concentrations

OUSE

FOSS

4 ug/m3

Dyers Bakers

Tanners Butchers

Metal workers

Chandlers Glaziers, Tilers

SOSO22 IN YORK ( IN YORK (μμg mg m-3-3))

Fuel imports Hearth tax

AIR POLLUTION IN 17AIR POLLUTION IN 17thth 18 18thth C C

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William LAUDWilliam LAUD

Losing you head over air pollutants

boring or brewing

Sir Kenelme DIGBY - Sir Kenelme DIGBY - errant mountebankerrant mountebank“Coal hath…

volatile salt very sharp…”dissapated to atoms in smoke

A Discourse on Sympathetic Powder 1658

Acid atoms

Alkaliatoms

Van Dyck

Margaret CAVENDISH -Margaret CAVENDISH - the ornament of Englandthe ornament of England

“Why that a coale should set a house on fireIs, Atomes sharpe are in that coale entireBeing strong armed with Points, do quite pierce through;Those flat dull Atoms, and their forms undo.”

Poems and Fancies 1653Her personal excess was legendary… men and women lined the streets of London to catch a glimpse of her.

Diarist, gardener and environmentalist

Fumifugium 1661 Many schemes to

improve London and its air

John EVELYNJohn EVELYN

Robert Walker1648

Ballad of Gresham CollegeBallad of Gresham College

22. To guesse by one everyone's meritt,

A Booke call'd Fumifugiam read.Its Author hath a publique spiritAnd doubtlesse too a subtile headHe must be more than John an OakeWho writes soe learnedly of smoake.

23. He shewes that 't is the seacoale smoake

That allways London doth Inviron,Which doth our Lungs and Spiritts choake,Our hanging spoyle, and rust our Iron.Lett none att Fumifuge be scoffingWho heard att Church our Sundaye's Coughing.

24. For melioration of the Ayre

Both for our Lungs and eke our noses,To plant the Fields he doth take careWith Cedar, Juniper and Roses,Which, turn'd to trees, 't is understood,Wee shall instead of coale burne wood.

DEATH by FOGDEATH by FOG

200

400

600

800

Deaths

0

2

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GreatFogsFogs

Weekly observations

John Graunt, Natural and Political Observations Made Upon the Bills of Mortality, London: 1662

The winter of 1679 Deaths very high

after weeks of fog Especially from tisick

and among elderly

RICHRICH

RAINWATER AND RAINWATER AND PUBLIC HEALTH PUBLIC HEALTH

Robert Angus Smith the first Alkali Inspector former student of Liebig network of rain sampling sites across the UK

(1869/70)

““The purpose of rain is primarilyThe purpose of rain is primarily to purify the air and not to purify the air and not

to fertilize the soil”to fertilize the soil”

URBAN POLLUTIONURBAN POLLUTION

R.A.Smith placed tin cans on fire-stations in London – used term “acid rain”

WHY HISTORY?WHY HISTORY?

Film companies Art history –

labelling paintings

COLONIAL AMBITIONSCOLONIAL AMBITIONS

Pigeon-post linking Auckland and Great Barrier Island choose to emphasise urban-industrial not rural aspirations.

Victorians associated smoke and wealth.

JCW Wright 1897

NZ Public Works Dept

AUCKLANDAUCKLAND Auckland, isthmus with sea breezes Shallow harbours - emissions from mudflats gave

odour problems or fume attacks 1840's problems from putrefying waste in the Port of

Auckland PJ Hogan 1852 Auckland No 2

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Smok

e (m

in/h

r)CALCUTTACALCUTTA - problems from the 18- problems from the 18thth C C

Victorian experts Grover and Nicholson went and pushed for stringent smoke inspection

Some measure of success smoke observation are not always

reliable

NICHOLSONVISIT