Acid Rain and the Rise of the Environmental Chemist in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Reed, Peter P.

doi:10.4324/9781315565507

Cited by 4 publications

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“…Given its position at the epicenter of nineteenth-century industrialization, Manchester featured heavily in early research on this subject, most famously through the experiments of Scottish chemist Robert Angus Smith, which began in the 1850s (Smith, 1872). Smith eventually identified the phenomenon of acid rain, and his work was a contributing factor in the creation of one of the first pieces of legislation globally that attempted to abate industrial pollution, the Alkali Act of 1863 (Reed, 2016). Smith's work supported and fuelled the work of allied social activists, such as the National Smoke Abatement Institution, who campaigned for better conditions in Britain's industrial cities during the second half of the nineteenth century (The National Smoke Abatement Institutions, 1888).…”

Section: Industrial Pollution and Dampnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

That Fine Rain That Soaks You Through. Exploring the Role of Weather Lore, Cultural Identity, and Community Memory in Shaping Attitudes to Climate Change

Hall

2022

Front. Clim.

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As the limitations of climate change communication, which focusses on the dissemination of scientific knowledge has become apparent, climate studies scholars have called for richer, less reductive approaches. This includes adopting more emotive language, which is sensitive to the myriad ways communities understand and know their own environ and climate. While on the surface, the recent emotive turn of popular discourse on anthropogenic climate change seems to heed this call, the communication approaches most commonly associated with these developments are limited in their ability to reach diverse communities. This article attempts to address this gap and contribute to affecting action in a manner which is both proportionate with the immediate climate risk, but also successful in engaging a range of groups within the community. Exploring the links between weather lore, cultural identity, and memory in shaping individual perceptions of climate risks, the article asks how such identities, both at the community and individual level, might have informed indifference or inaction with regards to climate change. Adopting a style that situates the author within the narrative, this essay uses Manchester, England and its popular reputation as ‘the rainy city' to explore these themes. Charting the history of the popularization of the meteorological myth that Manchester receives excessive amounts of rainfall, the article exposes how this folklore is bound up in regional cultural identity and civic pride, first as “Cottonopolis” at the vanguard of the Industrial Revolution, and then in the city's post-industrial rebranding as a place known for music, comedy, and sporting successes. In drawing these threads through community, familial and individual narratives, the article concludes by outlining how we might better utilize affection and cultural identification with local environments and weather to promote future behavior change.

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Section: Industrial Pollution and Dampnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

That Fine Rain That Soaks You Through. Exploring the Role of Weather Lore, Cultural Identity, and Community Memory in Shaping Attitudes to Climate Change

Hall

2022

Front. Clim.

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“…As with resource depletion, the heightened public health threats posed by pollution became starkly apparent in industrialising Europe and North America. Over a century before the phenomenon formed the vanguard of the environmentalist social movement in Europe acid rain was identified by British chemist Robert Angus Smith in 1859 and subsequently campaigned about by foresters and scientists in Germany (where Angus Smith had previously lived and studied) in the 1860s (Dominick, 1992;Reed, 2014). Similarly, the science of climate change was established as early as 1896.…”

Section: Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the countries at the forefront of the industrial revolution-and the scientific advances and social changes associated with this-Britain, Germany and Sweden also pioneered environmental policy in Europe. In Britain the Alkali Act was enacted in 1863 due to recognition that the booming Leblanc soda production process was filling the atmosphere with hydrochloric acid and, in recognition of his role in identifying this, Angus Smith was appointed head of the Alkali Inspectorate set up to implement new industrial restrictions (Reed, 2014). In a similar illustration of the catalytic effect of scientific discoveries on environmental policy still evident today, the Public Health Acts of 1848, 1872 and 1875 and the River Pollution Prevention Act of 1876 followed the establishment of the link between water pollution and cholera in Britain by Dr John Snow.…”

Section: Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Back to the future: environmental security in nineteenth century global politics

Hough

2019

Global Security: Health, Science and Policy

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Environmental security is generally held to be a contemporary or even futuristic concern. However, as with many facets of security thought, this overlooks how the unparalleled technological, economic and social changes of the 19 th Century forged much of the international political landscape we now inhabit. The tendency for ecological political enquiry to focus on the rise of ecocentric policy serves to obscure how many aspects of national and human security relating to environmental change were apparent in the 19 th century. Human insecurity in the face of pollution and resource depletion was a part of the emergence of ecological science in response to the industrialisation of Europe and North America. In addition, this was the era when European imperialism reached its apex and European nationalisms fully emerged; both of which contributed to the national securitization of the environment around much of the world in contrasting ways as the desire to both conquer and preserve nature became more evident. Environmental questions of national, human and ecological security are not peculiar to the present age and were very much apparent in 19 th Century global politics.

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“…Well-known for his work as an alkali inspector and for coining the term 'acid rain', he was also the author of a report focused on the air of mines, written in 1864. 66 Certainly, in his position as alkali inspector his main concern was the effect of fumes on property and not on public health. However, his individual contributions to improved smoke analysis, as well as his involvement since 1874 in the implementation of a revised Alkali Act which included sulphurous acid (sulphur dioxide) other than that released in the combustion of coal, could have been relevant incentives to considering his works in the Huelva discussions.…”

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confidence: 99%

Medical Experts and Agnotology in the Fumes Controversy of the Huelva Copper Mines (1888–1890)

Guillem-Llobat

2017

Med. Hist.

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Huelva's copper mines (Spain) have been active for centuries but in the second half of the nineteenth century extractive activities in Riotinto, Tharsis, and other mines in the region were intensified in order to reach world leadership. The method used in these mines for copper extraction from low grade ores generated continuous emissions of fumes that were extremely controversial. The inhabitants had complained about the fumes for decades but as activity intensified so did complaints. The killing of anti-fumes demonstrators in 1888 led to the passing of a Royal Decree banning the open-air roasting of ore and to the drafting of numerous reports on the hazards of the fumes. Major state and provincial medical institutions, as well as renowned hygienists and engineers, took part in the assessment, contributing to a scientific controversy especially rich in content. In my paper I will analyse the production and circulation of knowledge and ignorance about the impact of fumes on public health, as well as the role of medical experts and expertise in the controversy. The analysis will focus on the reports drafted between the 1888 ban and its 1890 repeal, and will show the changing nature of the expert assessment and the numerous paths followed by experts in producing ignorance. The paper will conclude by considering other stakeholders, who may shed some light on the reasons behind the performance of the medical experts.

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Acid Rain and the Rise of the Environmental Chemist in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

That Fine Rain That Soaks You Through. Exploring the Role of Weather Lore, Cultural Identity, and Community Memory in Shaping Attitudes to Climate Change

That Fine Rain That Soaks You Through. Exploring the Role of Weather Lore, Cultural Identity, and Community Memory in Shaping Attitudes to Climate Change

Back to the future: environmental security in nineteenth century global politics

Medical Experts and Agnotology in the Fumes Controversy of the Huelva Copper Mines (1888–1890)

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