Agenda UV

The Lopez Piñero Institute for the History of Science and Medicine (joint centre of the CSIC and the Universitat de València), with headquarters in the Palau de Cerveró, will present the seminar entitled ‘The Dark Age: Smoke Pollution in Urban-industrial Britain’ which will take place on Wednesday 5 November at 17:00 in the conference room of the Institute. The seminar, part of the 'Toxic Atmospheres II’ series, has been cofunded by the Societat Catalana d’Història de la Ciència i de la Tècnica (Catalan Society for the History of Science and Technology) and will be taught in English by Stephen Mosley, professor at Leeds Beckett University (UK).

Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the sulphurous black smoke expelled by industrial and domestic chimneys dominated urban landscapes in the UK. It was responsible for blackening urban architecture, blocking the sunlight, destroying vegetation and, particularly, damaging the health of the population. Environmental pollution has had and still has a direct correlation with high levels of mortality from bronchitis and other respiratory diseases, especially during the winter months when there was a greater use of coal to heat homes. However, despite the tangible nature of this particular form of air pollution, most inhabitants of these societies lived in a darkened environment without too many complaints, mainly because the smoke was closely associated with prosperity and the work of thousands of people.

This seminar will examine the complex issue of public perception of smoke pollution. A range of different texts, scientific and government reports, with which to explore the conflicting narratives ‘wealth-waste’ that gave meaning and led to the creation of common agreements on air pollution in major British cities such as Glasgow, London and Manchester will be offered. From the mid-nineteenth century, there were many attempts to raise awareness to employers and heads of families so they installed new anti smoke technologies, but these measures were not adopted widely until the 1950s.

Stephen Mosley completed his Master of Arts and Doctoral Studies in History from the University of Lancaster. He is senior lecturer in the School of Cultural Studies at Leeds Beckett University (UK). His research focuses on the history of environmental pollution and both its socioeconomic and health consequences. Among his publications are: Common Ground: Integrating the Social and Environmental in History (2011, with Geneviève Massard-Guilbaud) that opens a dialogue between the two disciplines; The Chimney of the World: A History of Smoke Pollution in Victorian and Edwardian Manchester (2008 edn.), which examines the human being and its environmental pollution costs in the first industrial city in the world; and The Environment in World History (2010). He was also editor of the Environment and History journal from 2010 to 2014.