"The monster nuisance of all": landowners, alkali manufacturers, and air pollution, 1828-64.

Abstract

A ir pollution has a long history Londoners have complained of Smoke from sea coal from thirteenth century onwards1 but development of a steam-powered, coal-burning technology in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries created pollution problems of a new order of magnitude. Coal output rose from roughly ii million tons in i8oo to almost 50 million tons in i850 and its combustion in furnaces, steam engines, and domestic hearths created smoke palls which came to be regarded as inevitable accompaniment to industrial activity. Wordsworth described industrial town: O'er which smoke of unremitting fires/Hangs permanent )2 The new chemical industries worsened situation by adding new, noisome, and often toxic elements to atmosphere; because of their impact, eminent scientist Lyon Playfair argued that airborne emissions from alkali manufacture were the monster nuisance of all.3 Industrial-pollution is perhaps least studied consequence of Industrial Revolution. Almost fifty years ago Lewis Mumford pointed out that first mark of paleotechnic industry was pollution of air and second, pollution of waterways,4 but apart from noting aesthetic and health implications of dirt and smoke, historians have not followed up his pioneering work. This neglect is unwarranted because many Victorians were affected by pollution, some seriously so. A few were in a position to protect themselves and in doing so they imposed significant restraints upon freedom of manufacturers and also expanded sphere of government involvement in economy. This article looks at one such episode where interests of alkali manufacturers came into conflict with those of neighbouring landowners. It traces attempts by landowners and others to win some redress for their grievances which began at end of i820s and culminated in i863 with passage of Alkali Act. This remarkable measure placed property of manufacturers under supervision of state in order to protect property of landowners, and most conspicuously property of large, wealthy land-