(10) The animal matters employed in this process give rise to a stench which has repeatedly formed the ground of indictment. The most nauseous part of the trade, however, consists in concentrating the waste lees, for the purpose of obtaining by fusion in a reverberatory furnace, an article which is called BLACK ASH, and which contains, amongst other salts, the sulphuret of soda.
(11) “Renderers of tallow” are persons who convert the butcher’s fat, &c. into tallow.
(12) The process of smelting different ores is the most injurious of all the operations of art, although to the senses it may be less nauseous than those in which animal matter undergoes decomposition by heat, or putrefaction. These evils, however, by the ingenious application of various mechanical and chemical expedients, have in many instances been very materially diminished, and in others, entirely obviated; this is strikingly illustrated in several large works for smelting lead ores; and the proprietors of the Hafod copper works, at Swansea, are at present engaged in an experimental inquiry into various plans which have been proposed for diminishing, or preventing the ill effects which arise from the metallic fumes. Acquainted as we are with the liberality and science of these gentlemen, we have little doubt of the result; and we mention the circumstance in this place in order to recommend similar efforts on the part of persons engaged in other works; and at the same time for the purpose of preparing the reader for some observations which we shall take occasion to offer, on the subject of the law of nuisance, in relation to its operation in stopping works of such national importance. It would be premature to enter into any detailed account of the chemical means which promise a successful resource on this occasion; we shall only observe that the great mischief seems to arise from the quantity of arsenic, so universally present in the ores of copper; and there is reason to hope, from the experiments already made by Mr. J. H. Vivian, that Lime may be usefully employed in preventing its volatilization. The author of the present note has had ample opportunities of investigating the effects of arsenical fumes, which arise from the burning-houses in Cornwall, and from the great copper works carried on at Hayle in that county, and they appear to be especially pernicious to graminivorous quadrupeds; horses and cows lose their hoofs; and the latter animals are not unfrequently seen, in the vicinity of the works, crawling along on their knees; they are also subject to a cancerous affection in their tails; and milch cows loose their milk. The herbage also suffers materially from the poisonous smoke, especially in wet seasons; corn is blighted in the ear, and never perfects its seed, unless care be taken to select at that period such ore as will yield but little sublimate. Cabbages do not appear to suffer in the least; nor are potatoes materially injured; and it is not the least curious circumstance in the history of these works, that the apple-trees in their vicinity grow and bear fruit without sustaining any of those ill effects which we should have anticipated, but, on the contrary, the arsenical fumes appear to destroy all the insects which usually infest such trees, and their trunks exhibit a cleanness which would delight the horticulturist. The men employed in these works are occasionally affected with a cancerous disease in the scrotum, similar to that which infests chimney-sweepers; it is however probable that this arises from the immediate application of the excoriating material made by the hand in the act of rubbing the part. A similar affection was a short time since observed in a manufactory, in which the workmen were engaged in making an arsenical solution for a green dye, used in calico printing.
(13) Gas Works. We have lately learnt, that a method has been adopted to get rid of the nuisance which has arisen from the residual liquor from these works, by evaporating it in pans, placed in the ash-pit of the furnace, and by which the iron bars of the fire-place are at the same time kept cool, and are therefore much longer preserved. The contrivance may be seen at the gas works in Worship-street.
[544]. By a visit to Apothecaries’ Hall, or to any of the great manufacturing chemists, the stranger will be astonished at the number and utility of the applications of steam to the processes of Pharmacy.
M. Dupin, when speaking of the immense mechanical force set in action by the steam-engines of England, gives the following illustration of its amount:—The great pyramid of Egypt required for its erection the labour of above 100,000 men for twenty years; the action of the steam-engines in England, which are, at most, all managed by 36,000 men, would be sufficient to produce the same quantity of work, in 18 hours!!!
[545]. It is supposed that the lime-trees in St. James’s Park owe their existence to the suggestion of Evelyn.
[546]. There are certain districts so devoted to manufactories that, in the general assemblage, it would be extremely difficult to identify the noisome effects of any particular one. A curious illustration of this fact lately occurred in two indictments; the one preferred against Apple, the proprietor of a prussian blue manufactory; the other against Moore, black-ash manufacturer; both of whose works were situated in Seward-street, Goswell-street. The counsel for the defendant, in his cross-examination of the witnesses for the former prosecution, artfully drew from them an account of the noisome vapours of the black-ash maker; while in the latter trial, the same barrister made the witnesses declare the extreme stench of the prussian blue manufactory; so that in both cases the defendants obtained a verdict—because in neither case could the evidence for the crown unequivocally prove from which of the manufactories the nuisance complained of arose.
[547]. But query, whether the ancient existence of an inconsiderable brewery, which from the small quantity of fuel consumed, was not a nuisance, should have warranted the augmentation of those immense factories which now obscure and suffocate some of the most populous districts in London.
[548]. It is impossible to question the justice and policy of this maxim as a general principle of legislation; “Salus Populi Suprema Lex,”—but there are circumstances which ought to exempt certain establishments from the operation of the common law of nuisances; we allude to those grand national works for smelting ores, which could not be closed without fatally affecting our national prosperity, and compromising the fate of the Arts themselves. No consideration, however, ought to admit them within the range of a great city, or a populous district; but where they have acquired a kind of right to toleration by time and necessity, in a remote place, they ought to continue in the enjoyment of their advantages without disturbance; but in return for such an immunity, the public has a right to expect every exertion on the part of the proprietors, in order to obviate, as far as in them lies, the diffusion of the fumes, throughout the neighbourhood, by improving the construction of the furnaces, and by the adoption of such chemical and mechanical expedients as may be capable of diminishing the evil. We are led to these observations in consequence of learning with regret that attempts have been frequently made to compel the proprietors of the Hafod copper works, before alluded to, to abandon them; and while the present sheet was in the press, we learnt that the Grand Jury had found a true bill against one of these establishments. We shall in consequence offer a few remarks, with a view of shewing the necessity that exists of introducing a protecting clause into the law of nuisances, in favour of certain established mining and smelting districts; and we must here observe, that the inhabitants which congregate in the vicinity of great manufactories of this description, are always, in the first instance, allured to the spot, by the prospect of gain; and it was not to be expected that persons who have been thus aggrandised, should, as soon as their riches confer independence and fastidiousness upon them, turn round and revile as insufferable and dangerous, that very power to which alone they owe any personal consequence to which they may now be entitled. But the strongest arguments will be found in the great importance of these works in a national and commercial point of view; and on this account we shall present the reader with some statistical arguments of considerable weight, viz: The quantity of coals consumed in the copper works in South Wales, and exported in the vessels which convey the ore from Cornwall to them, is calculated at 200,000 chaldrons annually; and the amount paid for it to the collieries at from £100,000 to £110,000. The number of persons employed in raising and delivering it is not less than 1,500. The number of persons employed in the smelting works is about 1,500, and the yearly amount of wages paid to them is not less than £50,000. The value of the materials consumed annually in these works may be taken at £20,000. The amount paid for the freight of ore and materials may be stated at £25,000. The number of vessels employed in the conveyance of the same may be about 150, and supposing them to be manned by five seamen on the average, they give occupation to 750 mariners. Thus a sum of not less than two hundred thousand pounds sterling is annually circulated in Glamorganshire and the adjoining county, and employment given to 3750 individuals.