Britain’s supremacy in the nineteenth century depended in large part on its vast deposits of coal. This coal not only powered steam engines in factories, ships, and railway locomotives but also warmed homes and cooked food. As coal consumption skyrocketed, the air in Britain’s cities and towns became filled with ever-greater and denser clouds of smoke. In this far-reaching study, Peter Thorsheim explains that, for much of the nineteenth century, few people in Britain even considered coal smoke to be pollution. To them, pollution meant miasma: invisible gases generated by decomposing plant and animal matter. Far from viewing coal smoke as pollution, most people considered smoke to be a valuable disinfectant, for its carbon and sulfur were thought capable of rendering miasma harmless. Inventing Pollution examines the radically new understanding of pollution that emerged in the late nineteenth century, one that centered not on organic decay but on coal combustion. This change, as Peter Thorsheim argues, gave birth to the smoke-abatement movement and to new ways of thinking about the relationships among humanity, technology, and the environment.
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About the Author
Peter Thorsheim is an assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
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abatement exhibition, antismoke activists, household coal consumption, concessionary coal, chief smoke inspector, nutty slack, smoke control areas, smoke abatement movement, smoke prevention, smoke inspectors, smoke nuisance, severe fog, smoke problem, ordinary coal, smokeless fuels, industrial smoke, household smoke, coal smoke, miasma theory, coke plants Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Coal Smoke Abatement Society, Beaver Committee, London County Council, National Smoke Abatement Society, United States, Clean Air Act, Sanitary Institute, Alkali Inspectorate, National Smoke Abatement Institution, National Coal Board, National Health Society, Octavia Hill, Smoke Abatement League of Great Britain, First World War, Rollo Russell, Alfred Carpenter, Des Voeux, Local Government Board, National Trust, North Sea, Second World War, Douglas Galton, House of Commons, John Ruskin, Robert Angus Smith New!
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abatement exhibition, antismoke activists, household coal consumption, concessionary coal, chief smoke inspector, nutty slack, smoke control areas, smoke abatement movement, smoke prevention, smoke inspectors, smoke nuisance, severe fog, smoke problem, ordinary coal, smokeless fuels, industrial smoke, household smoke, coal smoke, miasma theory, coke plants Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Coal Smoke Abatement Society, Beaver Committee, London County Council, National Smoke Abatement Society, United States, Clean Air Act, Sanitary Institute, Alkali Inspectorate, National Smoke Abatement Institution, National Coal Board, National Health Society, Octavia Hill, Smoke Abatement League of Great Britain, First World War, Rollo Russell, Alfred Carpenter, Des Voeux, Local Government Board, National Trust, North Sea, Second World War, Douglas Galton, House of Commons, John Ruskin, Robert Angus Smith New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
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