|
THIS WEEK IN HOUSEHOLD WORDS
Smoke or No Smoke
This piece, published in the July 1, 1854, issue, discusses
the enormous problem of air pollution in 19th-century Britain
and proposes means for solving the problem of excessive smoke
in the atmosphere. Although this piece takes London as its major
focus, the excessive smoke produced by manufacturers such as
those in Manchester and those represented in Hard Times
became a point of contention. Manufacturers who were required
by law to consume or "swallow" the smoke their factories made
frequently flouted the regulations. As we have seen, earlier
in the novel Bounderby tells Harthouse:
"First of all, you see our smoke. That’s
meat and drink to us. It’s the healthiest thing in the world
in all respects, and particularly for the lungs. If you are
one of those who want us to consume it, I differ from you.
We are not going to wear the bottoms of our boilers out any
faster than we wear ‘em out now, for all the humbugging sentiment
in Great Britain and Ireland."
This quotation is taking from the June 3,
1854, installment of Hard Times; the recurrence to the
question of smoke in this later issue of Household Words
demonstrates how Dickens controlled the content of the magazine
to highlight the novel’s key issues for readers, even as the
novel was covering other material.
Download the
article
|
