SMOKE, the exhalation or visible vapor that arises from a substance burning. In its more extended sense the word smoke is applied to all the volatile products of combustion, which consist of gaseous exhalations charged with minute portions of carbonaceous matter or soot; but, as often used in reference to what are called smoke-consuming furnaces, the term is frequently employed to express merely the carbonaceous matter which is held in suspension by the gases. The flames from burning metallic substances are also called smoke. With forced draft there is a great deal of waste in smoke, and engineers have given great study to the problem of reducing such waste, and wholly consuming the fuel, especially coal. A variety of contrivances, known as smoke-consumers or smoke-burners, have been introduced for this purpose. (See SMOKE NUISANCE). When the U-boats began to be dangerous to shipping, navigators turned their attention to means of producing a very thick and heavy smoke, which would screen a vessel from observation, and render it impossible for an enemy to aim with accuracy, not knowing where within the smoke their target was located.
SMOKE ('Duim'). Although Turgenief usually spent a part of every year in Russia, his home from 1863, the year following the publication of 'Fathers and Sons,' was in Baden-Baden until 1870. He was so disap pointed by the harsh criticisms of his novel, by the way it was misunderstood and by the consequent coldness of former friends that he even contemplated abandoning literature. But in 1867 'Smoke' appeared in the Russky Vyestnik, again arousing great animosity and bringing against him charges of caricaturing the young generation, and of insulting his own country. Some thought that its satire was an act of revenge. The scene is laid at Baden Baden, whither come the various characters, always chattering, without, as he expresses it, a single word of sincerity, a single intelligent thought, a single new fact amid all the in coherencies ; with no enthusiasm, no genuine pas sion but pseudo-civic indignation, pseudo-scorn ful indifference. The leading character, Grigory Milchailovitch Litvinof, of decent family and moderate means, is in Baden awaiting the arrival of his cousin, Tatyina Petrovna Shistova, who is to be his wife. Litvinof is discovered by a Moscow acquaintance, who insists on introducing him to every Russian in Baden, and this enables Turgenief to indulge in his bitterest satire. Litvinof encounters his
former fiancée, Irina Pavlova, now married to General Ratmirof. By the time Tatyina Petr6vha arrives, Irina has succeeded in throw ing her malign fascination upon him. He breaks with his cousin, and is ready to elope with Irina, but their plan fails, and he leaves Baden-Baden competely disillusioned. As the train hears him away, the smoke and steam from the engine drift by the window, now hiding the landscape, now giving a glimpse of gray skies and the misty Rhine Valley: was alone in the carriage, with no one to in terrupt him. 'Smoke! smoke!' he said to him self several times. And suddenly everything seemed to him to be smoke — everything, his own life, everything human, especially every thing Russian. 'Everything is smoke and steam,' he thought, 'everything seemingly goes through constant change; everywhere there are new forms, phenomenon succeeds phenomenon, but in reality all things are exactly alike; every thing is rushing to some unknown end and everything vanishes, leaving no trace. . . And as he recalls the heated arguments, the futile chatter of his expatriated fellow-country man, he realizes that his own aspirations and feelings are merely smoke like everything else.
The interest of the story centres on Irina, who is typical of the brilliant unscrupulous man chaser, cold and calculating, the Vampire of Society, made so by her environment and by false education. Litvinof is pallid in compari son with Bazinof and not so fresh and charm ing as Arkady. The other characters are in dividual, but none of them is interesting except as illustrating the ebullient Russians of the early sixties. 'Smoke' was translated into English under the title 'Smoke, or Life at Baden' (anonymous, London 1868) ; by W. F. West from the French version (1873). It is also in the five-volume edition of Turgenief's 'Works' (London 1874-75). It is to be found in Mrs. Constance Garnett's complete edition of the works from the Russian in 15 volumes (London 1894-99), and in Miss Isabel Hap good's version (New York 1904), also from the original. None is very satisfactory as representing the literary perfection of the author's style.