200-Meter Smokestack at the Halsbrücker Smelting Works Near Freiberg (1889)

This enormous chimney stack (“Hohe Esse”) was built in 1889 to pump smoke higher into the atmosphere – and thus slightly farther away from local residents, who were making claims about the harmful effects of air pollution. The smokestack was part of a vast smelting works whose other buildings can be seen here. The Halsbrücker works were located near Freiberg, the most important mining town in the Kingdom of Saxony and home to a famous mining academy.

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Source: Jahrbuch für das Berg- u. Hüttenwesen im Königreich Sachsen; reproduced in Franz-Josef Brüggemeier, Das unendliche Meer der Lüfte. Luftverschmutzung, Industrialisierung und Risikodebatten im 19. Jahrhundert, Essen: Klartext, 1996.