SMOKE NUISANCE. Various measures have been taken both in England and the United States to overcome the evil effects of soft coal smoke, especially in large cities. In 1875 a Public Health Act was passed in England to prevent nuisance from smoke in towns which provided that all fireplaces, furnaces and chim neys (exclusive of the chimneyk of a private dwelling) must be so constructed as to consume their smoke, under a penalty not exceeding $25 nor less than $10, on a second conviction $50. Similar laws apply to railway locomo tives and river steamers. In the United States various laws have been passed by State legis latures and ordinances by municipal bodies. But these enactments have only been partially successful. There are many practical difficulties in the way of consuming smoke, but experience has shown that none of them are insuperable. The principle involved is that of mixing air with the combustible vapors and gases gener ated by the action of heat on the fuel, so that by virtue of a due supply of oxygen at the correct temperature they may he made to burn with flame, and become entirely converted into incombustible and invisible vapors and gases. The increased use of gas and electricity tends toward a solution of the problem in cities.
Consult Popplewell, 'Comsumption of Smoke' ; Mellon, 'Smoke Investigation Bulletins' (Pitts burgh 1912,1913, etc.) ; Barr, W. M., 'The Com bustion of Coal and the Prevention of Smoke' (New York 1913).
a stack or funnel, usu ally of sheet steel, placed on boilers, locomo tives, etc., to carry off the gases of combustion. Also the tall draft-chimney of a factory, smelter, etc.
an arborescent shrub (Cotinus, or Rhus cotinus) indigenous to Eu rope, and also called Venetian Sumach; or the similar American species (Cotittirs cotinaides). They are shapely, tall and much branched and have oval leaves and terminal, large, loose panicles of greenish, polygamus five-panted flowers. These are chiefly abortive, and the long pedicels become very plumose in fruit, and seem to smother the plants as by smoke, with their feathery soft masses, which are pale green or reddish in hue. The soft orange colored wood yields a valuable dye-stuff called young fustic, and the leaves of the European species are used in tanning. Other names are the mist-tree and smoke-plant.