[rollei_list] Re: Lightmeters and Estimated Photography

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <jon.stanton@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 10:21 PM
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: Lightmeters and Estimated 
Photography


> "BTW, I don't think the air was very dirty in NYC back in
> 1936.  There were not that many cars. (Middle of the
> Great Depression) There were horse drawn wagons and
> electric trolleys instead of buses."
> More coal was being burned back then in all likelihood
> ---
> Rollei List
>
   Depends on the kind of coal. When I was a kid in Detroit 
in the early 1940's soft coal was banned for home heating. 
Hard coal (anthricite) burns with a blue flame like gas and 
produces very little ash. Railroads and industries mostly 
used bituminous coal but there are lots of grades from low 
sulfur clean burning to very dirty smoky coal. Detroit was 
not too dirty although old buildings tended to be coated 
with soot. My dad had his law offices in the Majestic 
Building (st 910). I thought this building was black until 
it was cleaned one year and turned out to be concrete gray.
   Coal burning locomotives were banned in Manhattan early 
in the last century. All railroads coming into Manhattan 
were electric. One reason was that they had to come through 
tunnels. I am not sure about other areas. Many of the large 
buildings in mid town were (and probably still are) heated 
by steam generated by Consolidated Edison or the New York 
Steam Company (historically) and piped over under the 
streets. The steam was almost certainly generated by burning 
coal but the smoke would have been concentrated in one 
place.
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 

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