The difficulties of abating smoke in late Victorian York

Historical railway documents and council minutes for the city of York reveal an active interest in abating smoke. As early as the mid-nineteenth century the public became less willing to accept pollution as a necessary part of economic progress. The Sanitary Committee of the council, while diligent in the latter part of the century, seemed unable to use the Public Health Act (1875) effectively. It undertook studies of smoke control devices and their use, but could not identify a workable method of smoke control. Industry, under continual pressure from the Town Clerk's office usually took steps to control smoke emissions. However the improvements in air quality, even when control procedures were adopted by many of the city's major factories, seem disappointing. Weak laws and limited technology hampered a very clear enthusiasm to abate smoke. © 1989.