Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
countryside close to forest and woodland areas where fuel was abundant, its
transportation costs were low, and where few people would be troubled by air
pollution problems.
A shortage of fuelwood and charcoal in sixteenth-century London, as its growing
population placed unsustainable demands on surrounding woodlands, led to the
increasing use of coal as a substitute
—
a harbinger of things to come. One of the
largest cities in Europe, London
s population is estimated to have more than
doubled from 75,000 in 1550 to 200,000 in 1600, with an almost threefold increase
to 575,000 in 1700. As wood became scarce its price increased dramatically, by
some 780 % between 1540 and 1640, forcing large numbers of Londoners to switch
to cheaper supplies of
'
as an alternative source of fuel for their homes and
businesses. Imported into London via coastal shipping routes and the Thames,
mainly from north-eastern England, the growing consumption of
'
sea-coal
'
'
sea-coal
'—
up
from c.10,000 tons in 1580 to c.360,000 tons in 1680
—
brought increasing com-
plaints about smoke emissions.
10
Coal had been shipped to London since medieval times, where it was burned
mainly by tradesmen in small workshops during fuelwood shortages. The dense
smoke billowing from smiths
forges, breweries and lime kilns soon attracted
criticism from its citizens, who were worried about deteriorating air quality in the
city. In the late thirteenth century, for example, two royal commissions were
appointed to inquire into complaints about pollution caused by coal-red lime kilns
operating in London. And Edward I issued a royal proclamation in 1307 to prohibit
the use of smoky
'
'
sea-coal
'
in the city
'
s kilns because of the
'
annoyance
'
caused to
its inhabitants and concern over
'
the injury of their bodily health
'
. In 1578 Queen
Elizabeth I objected to the
of sea-coal issuing from brewing
houses sited near the Palace of Westminster. By the seventeenth century the city
'
taste and smoke
'
s
smoke-cloud had thickened, as more and more Londoners made the transition from
wood and charcoal to fossil fuel consumption.
11
This provoked some in
'
uential
gures of the day to protest about the state of London
'
s atmosphere, best exem-
pli
ed by the publication of John Evelyn
'
s pamphlet Fumifugium in 1661, in which
he spoke indignantly of:
…
…
mixed with the otherwise wholesome and excellent Aer, that her Inhabitants breathe
nothing but an impure and thick Mist accompanied with a fuliginous and lthy vapour,
which renders them obnoxious to a thousand inconveniences, corrupting the Lungs, and
disordering the entire habits of their Bodies; so that Catharrs, Phthisicks, Coughs and
Consumptions rage more in this one City than in the whole Earth besides.
12
that Hellish and dismall Cloud of SEA-COAL
…
perpetually imminent over her head
In addition, he described how the smoke-cloud damaged the city
'
s architecture
and green spaces, as well as Londoner
s clothes and possessions. Smoke emissions
on such a scale would not be tolerated in the other great cities of Europe, Evelyn
'
10
Te Brake (
1975
), Brimblecombe (
1988
) and Jenner (
1995
).
11
Te Brake (
1975
), Brimblecombe (
1988
) and Sieferle (
2001
).
12
Evelyn (
1976
)p.5.
