Lodge vs lead
Still more from the 1886 Canadian Patent Register.

This ties in with my previous coverage of the Lodge-Muirhead wireless system, and the destructive EPA approach to wildfire pollution.

Electrostatic precipitators were under active development in 1886. Lodge and his associates built a practical precipitator, and tried it in a lead smelter. The precipitator reduced the dust and fumes "remarkably".

Lead is one of the few REAL pollutants. The EPA acted first to halt lead pollution, which is the ONLY good thing they did.

I've seen the effects of lead pollution. Several of my engineer uncles worked for American Metals, which had a smelter in Blackwell. We visited them occasionally, and the results of REAL pollution were dramatically obvious. The part of town downwind from the smelter was BARREN AND GRAY. Plants refused to grow there. Most adults had serious lung problems and died young. After EPA forced the plant to shut down, Blackwell was green again.

Big point: Pollution control for lead was AVAILABLE in 1886, and was developed and perfected over the years. Effective precipitators on smelters were common in 1920. American Metals didn't bother. Pinching pennies was more important than live workers. American Metals deserved to be shut down.

After 1975, EPA's real mission was finished, and EPA should have been shut down instead of switching to the "carbon" genocide. Unfortunately there's no meta-agency to shut down agencies that create problems instead of solving problems. Calling Trinity House, the permanent enemy of Parkinson!

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Lodge and associates built several versions of the precipitator. The small version was meant mainly for demonstrations. Before turning on the charge, smoke from an oil lamp flowed freely through the chamber.



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With charge applied from a static machine or induction coil, the smoke was ionized and precipitated.



Positive ions deposited on the negatively charged comb, and negative ions deposited on the positive comb.



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Lodge also built a large two-stage device, which I haven't animated because the description wasn't clear. Apparently the smoke entered the right chamber for partial precip, then an updraft sucked it into the left chamber for more thorough cleaning.



Lodge's sons commercialized his invention, running the wonderfully named Lodge Fume Deposit Company in Birmingham for many years. Why does the name tickle my fancy? Probably because it's more verb than noun. It tells you what the product does. It's like Frito-Lay Salty Taste Enjoyment Company or Tesla Neck-Snapping Acceleration Company.

Continued with an alternate use of the precipitator.

Labels: Carbon Cult, Lodge, Parkinson, Trinity House

  ¶ 2:51 PM