and abatements of the last five years.

This is the work of

all work done in the DEPARTMENT that is, and will be, the determining factor in the present and future death rate. As we sow so shall we reap, applies with force and truth to the daily work of this division.

Report of the Smoke Division.

BY D. J. MAY, CHIEF SMOKE INSPECTOR.

I TAKE pleasure in submitting the following report of the Smoke Division of this DEPARTMENT for the years 1895 and 1896:

That the DEPARTMENT has been successful is indeed gratifying considering the enormity of the nuisance, and a glance at the territory necessarily covered will reveal to even the most casual observer the unlimited amount of work coming under the supervision of this DEPARTMENT.

To abate the smoke nuisance in a city the size of Chicago is a matter well worthy of serious consideration. When it is remembered that our city is the great manufacturing center of the country, with immense factories of all kinds, besides having gigantic business and apartment buildings in all of which the use of steam is required, it becomes quite plain that the subject of combustion in this connection is a vital question. For steam purposes there are not less than 50 000 000 pounds or 25 000 tons of coal used every 24 hours, of which 90 per cent. is consumed in the daytime. Situated as it is, Chicago is practically limited to the use of the bituminous coal of Illinois and Indiana, as the maintenance of the mining industries of these States is an important factor in the general progress of the city. Under these conditions there are but two ways by which the requirements of the smoke ordinance may be fulfilled, either an abundance of boiler capacity, together with carefully constructed spacious boiler rooms, or the use of devices that will consume the smoke resulting from heavy firing.

It is the experience of the officers of the Smoke Department that the steam plants in Chicago, with very few exceptions, are constantly taxed constantly taxed to their utmost capacity and in many cases they are expected to do work of from 40 to 75 per cent. in excess of the rated capacity of their boilers. On account of this overtaxation of the boiler capacity, both in manufacturing plants and also in business blocks and apartment buildings, a heavy smoke follows as a natural consequence from over 90 per cent. of these plants. As a result of prosecutions for the violation of the smoke ordinance there has been a very general adoption of smoke-consuming devices; but of those on the market only a very few are worthy of the name while those which have a high order of merit do not accomplish the desired results because the demands made upon the plants in which they are placed are excessive. The great trouble arises at this point. When the owners of plants have spent from $75 to $800 on each boiler for a device that will prevent smoke, they will not believe but that they are the objects of unwarranted and malicious attacks when told that they are still violating the ordinance. When it is proved to them conclusively that dense black smoke is issuing from their chimneys, quite frequently they either attribute it to the firemen or some mishap for the time being. In nearly all such cases the means taken for the prevention of smoke should be held totally inadequate by engineers capable of judging, who would undoubtedly name some other way. It has been proved so conclusively since the present administration came into power, that smoke can be prevented without any reduction in the maximum capacity of the boilers, that the Smoke Inspection Bureau is warranted in the position it takes when it accepts no excuses for violation of the ordinance and requires the substitution of devices known to be effectual and to have stood the test for those that have failed.

A great many plants are now burning coal that formerly used gas and oil. This of course adds to the list of stacks liable to cause a nuisance; but the owners as a rule have been very willing to secure the necessary devices.

One of the arguments used by owners of plants in certain localities as a reason for violating the ordinance is that they confer such benefits upon the community that they more than counterbalance any nuisance made by them. But the DEPARTMENT will listen to no such arguments as it does not interpret the ordinance as relating to any particular locality. It is the purpose of this DEPARTMENT to enforce the ordinance in all localities. It holds that plants on the outskirts of the city are just as amenable to the law as those in the business centers, and has given them to so understand. One of the sources of annoyance, and not the least one, is the smoke caused by many public school buildings. They should be among the first to set a good example instead of furnishing pretexts for persistent law breakers.

The most difficult matter to contend with is the suppression of smoke caused by locomotives and tug-boats. However, a great improvement has taken place during the last year, most of the roads entering Chicago having fully 90 per cent, of their engines equipped with smoke devices.

The matter of tug-boats remains more obstinate, no device having been invented that will apply successfully to marine boilers used on tug-boats burning soft coal; and to use hard coal would raise the towing rates to an extent that