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Petition by the Citizens of Ulm (October 1862); Report from Bavaria's Central Office for Industry and Commerce (January 1863)

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II. Report from the Bavarian Central Office for Trade and Commerce, January 1863

Compared to the use of other fuels, the burning of pit coal is so cheap in most parts of the land that the use of this fuel is becoming more and more widespread for the normal heating of rooms and kitchens as well as for industrial operation. Even the smaller heaters with pit coal in private houses involve some disadvantages through the spread of soot, as is evident when drying clothes or collecting rainwater from roofs. Needless to say, such grievances are even more pronounced with larger burning installations, such as breweries. However, given the advantages from the burning of pit coal, especially with respect to costs compared to other fuels, it is not possible to prevent the increasingly general use of this coal for private use and industrial enterprises.

Where this use is new, complaints will initially be voiced, in so far as the burning installations that are used for the new fuel are not well suited to pit coal, and the furnace-men are not yet familiar with how to handle this fuel.

This is also the case in Ulm, where, incidentally, the grievances from coal heating are not worse than in other places; however, the people there are not yet used to this kind of heating and its unavoidable consequences.

At the least, the defendants should be charged with ensuring the smokeless burning of pit coal, if necessary by raising the chimney, and especially through careful stoking and the appropriate grates, which is in the interest of the owners of the furnaces themselves, as this saves them fuel.



Reprinted in Franz-Josef Brüggemeier and Michael Toyka-Seid, eds., Industrie-Natur. Lesebuch zur Geschichte der Umwelt im 19. Jahrhundert. Frankfurt and New York: Campus Verlag, 1995, pp. 67-69.

Translation: Thomas Dunlap

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