Chicago, the Dingy City-- Part 7: "Enveloped in Smoke Clouds All Day":

The city didn't end the year 1892 too well either.  On December 1, the Tribune reported, "Chicago Enveloped in Smoke Clouds All Day," as a heavy black smoke sooty smoke held sway making the gas lamps look like stars on a foggy night.

The paper went on to say the banks of smoke were "heavy enough to use as paper weights."  Offices and businesses had to turn on every jet and electric light to do business in the middle of the day.  Retailers complained that sales were down by buyers couldn't see the merchandise.  One resident went so far to say that pedestrians would be needing lanterns to walk around.

It is hard to determine how many times the sun was mostly blocked out, but this continued into the 1950s because the Tribune would write about these times when it was particularly bad.

On Jan. 18, 1925, the paper reported "the densest, thickest and darkest smoke screen which has been thrown over the city this season."  The "plague of darkness" on Dec. 7, 1929, was caused by low-hanging clouds, fog and "the customary smoke screen."

Perhaps the "Good Old Days" Weren't So Good Old.  --Ciiter

Chicago, the Dingy City-- Part 6: A Regular Black-Out

The problem was so bad, some experts said that planting certain types of vegetables was a waste of time because the smoke blocked out so much sun.  They suggested in one huge swath that the "the following should not be attempted: cucumbers tomatoes, peppers, parsnips, beans, peas, potatoes, turnips, sweet corn, eggplant, berries and melons."

On Jan. 29, 1892, it got so dark that the smoke ate the sun.  Though the suburbs and outer parts of Chicago enjoyed bright, blue skies, "Chicago was dark.  ...There lay on the lake a pall of smoke, making it difficult at noon to see the pier-light on the government breakwater.  ...The westerly wind drove the smoke out over the lake, and for a mile from shore, all was dark."

Visibility downtown was two blocks and the smoke on occasion would sink lower and "pedestrians had to pass through an atmosphere that was simply choking."

Is That You?  --DaCoot

Chicago the Dingy City-- Part 5: Smoke, Dust and Stench

Officials realized early on that health was also an issue due to all the smoke pollution.  The Tribune reported in 1880, "Health ... is directly injured by the nuisance."  Twenty years later the Tribune ran a nearly half page article on the health threat.  Its headlines "How Chicago's Men's Lungs Are Blackened By Soot."  An autopsy of one Chicago resident's lungs revealed one so black that to touch it "would blacken the palm almost as black as to put it wet into a pan of soot," said one doctor.

On July 31, 1890, one Tribune reporter wrote: "The smoke nuisance in the region west of Wells and south of Pearson streets is of large proportions and of athletic build.  It has daily encounters with two fellow-giants -- dust and stench -- and not being able to settle the question of superiority, they join forces and make war on mankind."

Postmen in the area looked like coal heavers, and one claimed he bathed four times a day.  "It dies no good," he said, " a trip down as far as Kingsbury Street to deliver a snip of a postal card, and I am black-faced and ire-eyed."

Cough, Cough.  --Cooter

Chicago, the Dingy City-- Part 4: "A Universal Nuisance"

On December 19, 1880, the Chicago Tribune wrote:  "There is not a storekeeper in Chicago whose goods are not seriously injured by it, and to many lines of fine goods it is destructive.  It soils and irreparably defaces some things.  The deposit of soot finds its way not only into stores, but into public and private offices, where it defaces papers and books.

"It reaches into every private dwelling, falls upon every bed, curtain, carpet, dining-table, blackens and disfigures all articles of furniture, finds its way into drawers and clothes-presses, is a curse to every laundry, and injures clothing to a costly extent.

"It is forever falling upon goods and upon persons, it renders the hands and faces of all grimy, sooty and unclean.  It is not a special but a universal nuisance, reaching all alike, and by all detested."

Not a Pretty Picture.  --DaCoot

Chicago, the Dingy City-- Part 3: "The Smoke Horror"

Tuorists to Chicago are amazed at the air quality.  But that was not always the case.  Noted author Rudyard Kipling visited and was not impressed with anything about the city.  As far as its air, on Feb. 8, 1891, he wrote, "Its air is dirt."  It was a statement of fact.

Civic leaders and the Tribune campaigned tirelessly against the "Smoke Horror."

In 1976, the Tribune wrote:  "The wisp of smoke that enters your eyes and mouths... the falling soot that decorates our noses and leaves its trace on our linen becomes more and more disgusting...and yet nothing is done.  Marble fronts are blackened, costly goods are spoiled, valuable books and papers are defaced, washing bills are multiplied, and everybody made uncomfortable in order that a few persons may not be put to the inconvenience of attaching a smoke-consumer to their engines."

Those few persons would be the mighty rich folks.

Hack, Hack, and i Don't Smoke.  --Cootcougher

Chicago, the Dingy City-- Part 2: "Its Dirty Imprint"

Government regulation beginning in the 1960s helped curtail that earlier scene.  The Wrigley Building is now again a blazing white and folks can breathe in the air deeply while enjoying the lakefront.

And, the debate over costs and benefits of clean air is again in the news as the judges of the Supreme Court rule on whether the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its authority in setting more stringent mercury emission rules.

But, Chicago for much of the 19th and 20th centuries was not a very healthy place to live.

The smoke nuisance, as they called it, was invasive.  Just think of all the factory smokestacks and people burning coal and wood for heat..  "It ruined belongings, blackened and eroded architecture, spoiled food and caused incalculable health problems for residents.  It turned day onto night...."

As early as 1974, as the city was being rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1871, the Tribune warned that the huge increase in factories andhotels and the new skyscrapers with their steam-powered elevators, was a serious problem.  "So dense is the volume of smoke that, unless there is a brisk, stirring breeze, the whole of it settles down in the central part of the city and leaves its dirty imprint," the editorial said.

Dirty, Dirty Chicago.  --DaCoot

Chicago, the Dingy City-- Part 1

From the June 6, 2015, Chicago Tribune "The Dingy City" by Stephan Benzkofer.

"The smoke and soot was so thick, they blotted out the sun.

"Residents who hung their clean clothing to dry hauled in dingy white shirts and gritty underwear.  Opened windows meant soiled curtains and filthy sills.

"Brand new buildings quickly weathered as the caustic pollution ate away the sun.

"This isn't a dystopian vision of the future.  It isn't a description of rapidly industrializing China or India.  It's Chicago's past."

Maybe the Good Old days Weren't So Good Old.  --Cooter