Air Pollution Control A Design Approach 4th Edition Ebook PDF Version

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Contents
Preface to the Fourth Edition xv
1 An Overview 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Definitions and Types of Pollutants 2
1.3 Pollutants of Global Concern 6
Ozone Depletion 6
Global Climate Change 7
Sources of Global Climate Change 10
What Can We Do? 15
1.4 Legislative and Regulatory Trends
in the United States 17
Federal Legislation 17
Federal Regulations and Standards 22
The Permitting Process 29
1.5 The Ideal Gas Law and
Concentration Measurements in Gases 30
1.6 Other Applications of the Ideal Gas Law 34
1.7 Gas Flow Measurement 37
1.8 Causes, Sources, and Effects 48
Particulate Matter 50
Sulfur Dioxide 53
Nitrogen Oxides 54
Photochemical Oxidants and VOCs 56
Carbon Monoxide 57
An Air Quality Index 59
1.9 National Air Quality Trends 61
▲ Problems 66 References 70
v
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vi Contents
2 What Is Process Design? 75

2.1 Introduction 75
2.2 General Design Considerations 77
Process Flow Sheets 77
Material Balances and Energy Balances 79
Enthalpy 84
2.3 Simple Analysis of a Coal-Fired Power Plant 85
2.4 Engineering Economics 93
Optimizing Fixed Capital and Operating Costs 93
Depreciation 94
Incremental Rate of Return on Investment 96
Comparison of Several Alternatives 98
Payout Period 98
2.5 APC Equipment Cost Estimation 98
Equipment Costs 102
2.6 Preliminary Fixed Capital Cost Estimates
for Pollution Control Projects 103
2.7 Annual Operating Cost Estimates 105
3 Particulate Matter 111

3.1 Introduction 111
3.2 Characteristics of Particles 111
3.3 Particulate Behavior in Fluids 120
The Drag Force 120
External Forces 124
Gravitational Settling 124
Collection of Particles by Impaction,
Interception, and Diffusion 127
3.4 Overview of Particulate Control Equipment 129
4 Cyclones 135
Cyclone Dimensions 138
4.2 Theory 140
Collection Efficiency 140
4.3 Design Considerations 141
Collection Efficiency 141
Pressure Drop 146
Other Considerations 148
4.4 Costs 152
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Contents vii
5 Electrostatic Precipitators 161

5.2 Theory 163
Plate Sizing 169
Corona 170
Particulate Resistivity 170
Internal Configuration 174
Plates and Wires 178
Removal of Particle Dust 179
Power Consumption 181
Flue Gas Conditioning 182
5.4 Wet ESPs 185
5.5 Costs 186
6 Fabric Filters 193

6.2 Theory 195
Reverse-Air and Shaker Baghouses 201
Pulse-Jet Baghouses 210
Other Considerations 218
6.4 Costs 220
7 Particulate Scrubbers 231

Spray-Chamber Scrubbers 231
Cyclone Spray Chambers 233
Orifice and Wet-Impingement Scrubbers 233
Venturi and Venturi Jet Scrubbers 235
Other Designs 235
Typical Wet Scrubber Applications 236
Advantages and Disadvantages of Wet Scrubbers 237
7.2 Theory and Design Considerations 239
Spray Chambers 239
Venturi Scrubbers 243
Contacting Power Approach
in Wet Scrubber Design 247
7.3 Other Considerations 252
Elimination of Liquid Entrainment 252
Humidification of Scrubbed Gases 252
7.4 Costs 257
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viii Contents
8 Auxiliary Equipment: Hoods, Ducts, Fans, and Coolers 263

8.2 Hoods 263
8.3 Ducts 267
8.4 Fans 277
Fan Curves 279
Fan Laws 279
Fan Rating Tables 286
Fan Selection 286
8.5 Cooling Hot Airstreams 294
Air Dilution 294
Water Injection 294
Heat Exchange 296
8.6 Costs 300
Hoods 300
Ducts 300
Fans 302
Coolers 308
9 A Particulate Control Problem 313

9.2 Problem Statement 314
9.3 Options for Final Control 315
9.4 Major Items of Equipment 316
The Cyclone 318
The Cooler 319
Final Control Device—Alternative 1: Baghouse 320
Final Control Device—Alternative 2: ESP 322
Ductwork 323
Induced Draft Fan 324
Stack 326
9.5 Summary 326
▲ References 326
10 Properties of Gases and Vapors 327

10.2 Vapor Pressure 328
10.3 Diffusivities 331
10.4 Gas-Liquid and Gas-Solid Equilibria 332
Solubility 332
Adsorption 333
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Contents ix
10.5 Chemical Reactions 334

Kinetics 334
Thermodynamics 337
11 VOC Incinerators 343

11.2 Theory 345
Oxidation Chemistry 345
The Three Ts 349
Predicting VOC Kinetics 351
Nonisothermal Nature of VOC Oxidation 356
Catalytic Oxidation 356
Thermal Oxidizers 357
Catalytic Oxidizers 365
Heat Recovery 369
Flares 374
11.4 Costs 375
Purchased Equipment Costs 376
Heat Exchangers 378
12 Gas Adsorption 385

12.2 Adsorption Theory 387
Physical and Chemical Adsorption 387
Adsorption Isotherms 387
Adsorption Potential 390
Experimental Determination of Isotherms 390
12.3 Physical Properties of Adsorbents 392
Activated Carbon 392
Other Adsorbents 394
12.4 Fixed-Bed Adsorption Systems 394
Breakthrough Curves and
Their Relationship to System Design 394
Pressure Drop Across Fixed Beds 396
Adsorbent Regeneration 399
Safety Considerations 401
12.5 Design of Fixed-Bed
Carbon Adsorption Systems 401
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12.6 Economics of Fixed-Bed Adsorption Systems 407

Capital Costs Estimates 407
Adsorber Operating Costs 408
12.7 Fluidized-Bed Adsorbers 411
13 Gas Absorption 417

Gas Absorption Equipment 418
13.2 Absorption Tower Design 418
Mass Transfer Theory 418
Mass Transfer in Packed Towers 423
Absorption and Chemical Reaction 431
Flooding, Pressure Drop, and Allowable
Gas and Liquid Rates in Packed Towers 432
Design Simplification for
Lean Gas Applications 440
13.3 Estimating the Cost of Absorption Towers 446
Absorption Tower Operating Costs 447
13.4 Stripping Operations 449
14 Biological Control of VOCs and Odors 455

14.2 Theory and Descriptive Information 458
14.3 Key Considerations in the Design
and Operation of Biofilters 468
Design 468
Operating Considerations 472
Case Study 477
Cost Estimation 480
15 Control of Sulfur Oxides 485

15.2 Overview of Control Strategies 486
Fuel Desulfurization 487
SO2 Removal Techniques 489
Throwaway Processes 490
Regenerative Processes 495
15.3 Limestone Scrubbing 500
Process Chemistry and Operational Factors 501
SO2 Mass Transfer 502
Physical Factors 504
Material and Energy Balances 506
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Contents xi
15.4 Mercury Control 516

15.5 Costs 517
16 Control of Nitrogen Oxides 523

16.2 Chemistry of NOx Formation 526
Thermal NOx 526
Fuel NOx 534
16.3 NOx Control: Stationary Sources 535
Combustion Modifications 537
Flue Gas Treatment Techniques 543
16.4 Costs 551
17 A Vapor Control Problem 561

17.2 Problem Statement 561
17.3 Selecting a Design Flow Rate 568
17.4 Carbon Adsorption System 570
17.5 Thermal Incineration System 570
17.6 Catalytic Incineration System 571
17.7 Biofilter System 571
17.8 Summary 572
18 Mobile Sources: An Overview 573

18.2 Magnitude of the Problem 575
Non-Road Sources 580
18.3 Characteristics of Engines in Mobile Sources 582
18.4 Vehicle Emissions and Emission Controls 589
18.5 Other Measures for Control of
Air Pollution from Vehicles 604
19 Air Pollution and Meteorology 613

19.2 General Atmospheric Circulation Patterns 614
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xii Contents
19.3 Local Circulation Effects 619

The Land-Sea Breeze 619
Mountain-Valley Winds 620
Wind Roses and Low-Level
Pollutant Dispersion Patterns 620
19.4 Atmospheric Stability and Vertical Mixing 620
The Hydrostatic Equation 622
Adiabatic Heating and Cooling
during Vertical Air Movement 623
The Effect of Lapse Rate on Vertical Stability 625
Temperature Inversions 626
19.5 Photochemistry and Smog 631
Causes of Photochemical Smog 631
Anatomy of a Smog Episode 636
The Chemistry of Photochemical Smog 637
The Nitrogen Dioxide Photolytic Cycle 638
The Effects of Smog 642
The Control of Photochemical Smog 643
19.6 Meteorology and Air Pollution 644
Air Pollution Surveys 644
Selection of Plant Sites 645
Specification of Emission Rates 645
Stack Design 645
20 Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling 651

20.2 A Physical Explanation of Dispersion 653
20.3 The Gaussian Model 655
Atmospheric Stability Classes 659
The Dependence of Concentration
on Averaging Time 665
Estimating the Maximum Downwind
Ground-Level Concentration 666
Estimating the Downwind Concentration
under an Elevated Inversion 669
20.4 Tall Stacks and Plume Rise 671
Design Procedures 672
Plume Rise 673
Critical Wind Speed 679
Other Stack Design Considerations 680
Stack Costs 682
20.5 Computer Programs for
Dispersion Modeling (Point Sources) 684
20.6 Mobile Sources and Line Source Models 685
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Contents xiii
21 Indoor Air Quality and Control 695

21.2 Some Pollutants of Concern 697
VOCs (including Formaldehyde) 698
Inorganic Gases—Combustion Products 700
Respirable Particles (including Tobacco Smoke) 701
Radon 701
Biological Contaminants
(including Molds, Mildews, and Allergens) 702
21.3 Source Control and Ventilation 703
Source Control 704
Ventilation 704
Air Cleaning 705
21.4 Material Balance Models
for Indoor Air Quality 706
21.5 Practical Solutions to IAQ Problems 713
21.6 Case Studies 716
Case 1: A Water Damaged Hotel 716
Case 2: Another Case of Water Damage 717
22 Control of Carbon Dioxide 721

22.2 Magnitude of the CO2 Problem 728
22.3 CO2 Prevention 733
Conservation 735
Alternative Fuels 735
Efficiency Improvements 736
Supercritical PC Power Plants 737
Integrated Gasification
Combined Cycle (IGCC) Plants 738
Oxy-fuel Combustion 741
22.4 CO2 Capture 742
Wet Scrubbing of CO2 742
Biogenic Capture 746
Other Methods for Capturing CO2 751
22.5 Transportation and Sequestration of CO2 751
Ship Transport 753
Pipeline Transport 754
Sequestration in Geological Formations 755
Ocean Sequestration 756
2.6 Summary 757
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xiv Contents
Appendixes 765
Appendix A: Conversion Factors 766
Appendix B: Properties of Air and Other Materials 769
Appendix C: Some Properties of
a Gaussian Distribution 786
Appendix D: Computer Programs 790
Appendix E: Practice Problems (with solutions)
in Air Quality for the P.E. Examination
in Environmental Engineering 797
Appendix F: Answers to Odd-Numbered Problems 813
Index 819
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Preface to the
Fourth Edition
Engineers working in air pollution control have many responsibil-

ities. One of the most demanding, yet satisfying, of these is the design
of air pollution control systems. This textbook describes the philoso-
phy and procedures for the design of such systems, and will help
young engineers prepare for the challenges and rewards awaiting
them as designers. In addition, this text presents numerous chapters
on specialized control equipment that contain the necessary equations
and data to design and specify new systems and/or to analyze existing
systems. Therefore, it also serves as a good source of information
about air pollution control for more experienced engineers.
Our text has two main objectives. The first is to present informa-
tion about the general topic of air pollution and its control. The sec-
ond, perhaps more important, objective is to aid in the formal design
training and instruction of engineering students. Design of equipment
and systems has often been underrepresented in air pollution books;
however, it is a key function of engineers, and should be emphasized
in engineering curricula.
Engineering textbooks generally must be updated on a regular
basis because of ongoing discoveries, innovations, and developments
in all the engineering fields. In this Fourth Edition, all the chapters
have been extensively revised and updated. However, the main addi-
tion to this text is a new chapter devoted to carbon dioxide control
(more about that shortly). As in the previous edition, reference to the
World Wide Web as a data source is demonstrated frequently, and
more emphasis has been placed on PC-based spreadsheet applications
for solving problems throughout the book. We have included an appen-
dix containing several practice P.E. Exam problems and step-by-step
solutions. It is hoped that students will find these extra problems
helpful in learning to master the problem-solving techniques needed
for this exam.
xv
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xvi Preface to the Fourth Edition
Back in 2000, Phillip Abelson, editor of Science, endorsed the idea

of removing large quantities of CO2 from fossil fuel combustion gases,
and then sequestering it underground in abandoned oil fields and coal
mines (Science, 289, August 25, 2000). In the Preface to the Third Edi-
tion, we stated that one day many of today’s students will be engaged
in finding solutions to this global problem. Well, that day has come.
Global climate change poses some enormous challenges for human-
kind (indeed for all living creatures), and we engineers must provide
solutions. In a new, final chapter to this text, we outline the basics of
the technological approaches that likely will be used to capture and
sequester carbon dioxide.
The authors would like to express our acknowledgments to Mr.
Kurt Westerlund, Ms. Johanna Clifford, Mr. Mark Ritner, and Ms.
Jessica Ross, graduate students at UCF who helped tremendously by
solving end-of-chapter problems and putting them into presentable
shape. We also want to acknowledge the helpful and professional work
of Laurie Prossnitz and Debi Underwood, our excellent editor and
graphic artist (respectively), at Waveland Press.
C. D. Cooper
F. C. Alley
Cooper-Alley 4E.book Page 1 Tuesday, October 1, 2013 9:26 AM
An Overview
As I was walking in your Majesties Palace at Whitehall . . . a pre-

sumptuous Smoake . . . did so invade the Court . . . [that] men could
hardly discern one another for the Clowd. . . . And what is all this, but
that Hellish and dismall Clowd of SEA-COALE . . . [an] . . . impure
and thick Mist, accompanied with a fuliginous and filthy vapour. . . .
John Evelyn, 1661
 1.1 Introduction
The preceding quote was chosen to herald the start of this chapter
and this book because it clearly demonstrates that air pollution is not a
new phenomenon, but was a problem in some local areas centuries ago.
In fact, according to Te Brake (1975), the smoke from the burning of
“sea-coale” in lime kilns in London was a serious problem as early as
A.D. 1285. The air pollution situation in London persisted, and, in
1307, King Edward I banned the burning of sea coal in lime kilns (Te
Brake 1975). By the last quarter of the fourteenth century, the problem
diminished, only to reappear by the middle of the sixteenth century.
According to Te Brake (1975), the periods of peak air pollution
problems in preindustrial London corresponded roughly to periods of
population expansion and fuel “crises”; that is, sea coal (the less-desir-
able and more-polluting fuel) was burned when wood (the preferred
fuel) went into periods of short supply and/or high prices. British
woodlands were subjected to many population-related pressures
including the need for arable land, the need for building materials,
and the need for fuel. The sudden switch in the fifteenth century from
the use of the polluting sea coal to clean-burning wood may have been
the result of the sudden drastic decline in London’s population caused
by the Black Death (plague).
Today much of our air pollution is directly related to the combus-
tion of fuels for industrial production, for transportation, and for pro-
1
2 Chapter One An Overview
duction of electricity for domestic use. Although isolated air pollution

problems were of local significance centuries ago, air pollution did not
become a global concern until the advent of the industrial revolution.
Fuel combustion in a country is directly related to the number of peo-
ple and their standard of living (that is, energy consumption). Since
the early 1800s, world population has increased about one order of
magnitude, and per-capita energy consumption has increased about
two orders of magnitude. Of course, much greater than average
increases have occurred in the industrialized urban centers of the
world. Therefore, it is not surprising that air pollution has become an
international concern.
However, if Te Brake’s arguments and conclusions are accepted,
then some of the reasons for the air pollution problems of today’s soci-
ety are similar to those that existed more than 700 years ago. Let us
hope that our present environmental problems are resolved by our
technological abilities and not by a drastic global calamity.
 1.2 Definitions and Types of Pollutants

According to one dictionary, pollution is a synonym for contami-
nation. Therefore, air pollutants are things that contaminate the air
in some manner. The federal government, as well as each state, has
incorporated into law a more precise definition of air pollution. The
legal definition in the state of Florida (all such definitions are similar)
is as follows:
Air pollution is the presence in the outdoor atmosphere . . . of any
one or more substances or pollutants in quantities which are or
may be harmful or injurious to human health or welfare, animal or
plant life, or property, or unreasonably interfere with the enjoyment
of life or property, including outdoor recreation.
(Florida Administrative Code 1982)
By the preceding definition, any solid, liquid, or gas that is present in
the air in a concentration that causes some deleterious effect is consid-
ered an air pollutant. However, there are several substances that, by
virtue of their massive rates of emission and harmful effects, are con-
sidered the most significant pollutants.
National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) have been
established for six criteria air pollutants—five primary (meaning
emitted directly) and one secondary pollutant (so-called because it
is formed in the lower atmosphere by chemical reactions among pri-
mary pollutants). The term criteria pollutant comes from the fact
that health-based criteria were used to establish the NAAQS for
these pollutants.
The five primary criteria pollutants are particulate matter less
than 10 µm in diameter and particulate matter less than 2.5 µm in
Section 1.2 Definitions and Types of Pollutants 3
diameter (PM-10 and PM-2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide

(NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate lead; the secondary cri-
teria pollutant is ozone (O3). Of these, the first four are emitted in the
United States (and other large industrialized countries) in quantities
measured in millions of metric tons per year and are sometimes called
major primary pollutants. When speaking of emissions of the criteria
pollutants, the data often are presented in classes: PM-10 and/or PM-
2.5, sulfur oxides (SOx), and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Another class of
compounds—volatile organic compounds (VOCs)—though not a crite-
ria pollutant, is recognized as a major primary pollutant because of its
large emissions and its importance in the reactions that form ground-
level ozone.
Some clarification is needed in regard to VOCs. As used in this
text, VOCs include all organic compounds with appreciable vapor
pressures. Some VOCs (for example, propylene) are reactive in the
atmosphere, whereas others (for example, methane) are inert. Some
VOCs are hydrocarbons (contain only hydrogen and carbon), but oth-
ers may be aldehydes, ketones, chlorinated solvents, and so on.
In the United States, emissions of the primary air pollutants
increased rapidly following the end of the Great Depression. As the pop-
ulation increased and became more mobile and as industrial production
soared, it was inevitable that air pollution would increase. However—
perhaps because of the development of legislative and technical con-
trols—the emissions of all the major pollutants peaked in the early
1970s and then began to decline. In recent years, this decline in emis-
sions has slowed. Figure 1.1 illustrates the trends in U.S. emissions
for particulates, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and VOCs. Carbon
monoxide and lead data are presented separately in Figure 1.2
because different scales are required.
It is important to note that air pollution is not just a problem of
the United States, but rather it is an international problem. While
much of the data in this text comes from the American experience,
industrialized and developing nations throughout the world have
experienced and are continuing to experience severe air pollution
problems. According to one author (Nadakavukaren 2006), the less-
developed countries (LDCs) have the most serious air pollution prob-
lems in the world today. The largest, most crowded cities are particu-
larly impacted. Of the urban areas that are consistently ranked
among the world’s “most polluted,” several are in China and India—
the world’s most populous countries.
Furthermore, as the populations of the LDCs grow and their econ-
omies expand (both at rapid rates), their contributions to global air
pollution will become a greater part of the whole. In the early 1970s, it
was thought that the United States contributed about 30–50% of
world air pollution emissions, depending upon the specific pollutant.
However, owing to vigorous and effective air pollution control efforts
Emission rate, millions tons/year 40
35
VOCs
30
PM-10
25
SOx
20
15
NOx
10
0
1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Year
Figure 1.1
Long-term trends in U.S. annual emission rates for SOx, VOCs, NOx, and
PM-10.
Notes: PM-10 data inconsistent prior to 1990; PM includes fugitive dust after 1980; PM-2.5
unavailable before 1990.
(Sources: EPA-454/R-00-003, 2000; U.S. EPA, “National Emissions Inventory (NEI),” n.d.)
Pb Emissions Rate – thousands of tons/year
CO Emissions Rate – millions of tons/year
250
200
CO
150
100
Pb
50
0
1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Year
Figure 1.2
Long-term trends in U.S. annual emission rates for CO and lead.
Note: Lead data unavailable prior to 1970.
(Sources: For CO data, U.S. EPA, “National Emissions Inventory (NEI),” n.d.; for lead data,
Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Table 4-46: Estimated National Emissions of Lead, n.d.)
Section 1.2 Definitions and Types of Pollutants 5
over the past forty years, the United States has reduced its total emis-
sions, whereas in many other countries, emissions have risen rapidly.
By 1987, it was estimated that the United States emitted from 12%
(for particulate matter) to 40% (for hydrocarbons) of total world emis-
sions (Faiz et al. 1992). By the early 2000s, due to growth in China,
India, and other LDCs, and to improved pollution control in the
United States, U.S. emissions accounted for less than 10% of the
world’s particulate emissions, and no more than about one-third of
worldwide emissions of any other pollutant. Over the last twenty
years, leaders in the World Bank and other organizations and the
individual governments of these countries have recognized these cru-
cial air quality problems. It is encouraging to note that they have now
started to address their air pollution problems through technical and
regulatory approaches.
The only secondary pollutant for which there is an AAQS and
which is also of major concern in urban centers throughout the world
is ozone (or more generally, photochemical oxidants). Oxidants are
secondary pollutants because they are not emitted directly; rather,
they are formed in the lower atmosphere by chemical reactions involv-
ing sunlight, VOCs, and nitrogen oxides. It is important to distinguish
between ozone near the ground (the pollutant) and ozone in the upper
atmosphere (which helps protect us from ultraviolet radiation).
The pollutants mentioned above mostly impact people and the
environment on a local or urban scale. However, a pollutant with seri-
ous regional-scale impact is acid rain (more correctly, acidic deposi-
tion). Acid precursors, such as sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides, react
with oxygen and water in the atmosphere to form acids that can then
fall to the ground with rain, snow, sleet, or as dry particulates. The two
most important constituents of acid deposition are HNO3 and H2SO4,
which contribute about 98% of the free acidity found in acid rain (Lik-
ens 1976). In the 1970s, over two-thirds of the acidity in rainfall was
sulfur based and one-third was nitrogen based. Title IV of the Clean
Air Act Amendments of 1990 called for significant reductions of both
SO2 and NOx emissions. These reductions have mainly come from the
largest sources (power plants for SO2 and motor vehicles for NOx).
Since 1990, U.S. sulfur oxides emissions have been reduced by 43% and
nitrogen oxides have dropped by 33%. The overall amounts of acids
deposited in the U.S. have decreased proportionately, but now the acid-
ity in rainfall derives almost equally from sulfur and nitrogen com-
pounds. More information about the acid rain program and its
successes can be found in the comprehensive report “National Acid Pre-
cipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP) Report to Congress: An Inte-
grated Assessment” (National Science and Technology Council 2005).
Monitoring in the eastern United States and in Scandinavia
showed a marked decrease in the pH of rainfall from the mid-1950s
through the mid-1970s. Rainfall pHs were measured in the range from
less than 2 to 5.5 (U.S. EPA 1979). In many lakes with little natural
buffering capacity, lake water pH dropped rapidly. At pHs less than
about 4.5, fish die because of the acidity itself and because of the acid
leaching of toxic metals from nearby soils into the water; at pH 5, most
fish eggs cannot hatch (U.S. EPA 2008). Other effects include disrup-
tion of terrestrial ecosystems, forest and soil degradation, corrosion of
steel structures, deterioration of paint and stone (e.g., marble and
limestone), and indirect effects on human health (U.S. EPA 2007,
2009). An aggressive program to reduce emissions of SOx from power
plants since 1990 has helped stop this trend in increasing acidity. Cur-
rent pH monitoring data—including isopleths of pH maps of the coun-
try—can be found at http://nadp.sws.uiuc.edu.
 1.3 Pollutants of Global Concern

For the first time since humans began roaming the earth, we (in the
twenty-first century) have the numbers and the power to change our
environment on a global scale. Two air pollution problems that confront
modern society fall into the category of pollutants of global concern.
Ozone Depletion
In the 1930s, chemists invented a “miracle” chemical. It was
extremely stable, nontoxic, nonflammable, and could be used in many
commercial applications. This chemical and its derivatives that fol-
lowed are called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). CFCs (also known as fre-
ons) came to be used throughout the world (as refrigerants, aerosol
propellants, foam-blowing agents, cleaning solvents, air conditioning
gases, and other substances).
For a long time, no one suspected any adverse consequences to the
use of CFCs. However, in 1974, the theory was put forward that
CFCs—which are stable in the lower atmosphere—break down in the
stratosphere, releasing chlorine atoms (Molina and Rowland 1974).
Chlorine atoms and other radicals remove stratospheric ozone very
effectively through a set of catalytic reactions that regenerate the
chlorine atom or radical; thus, tens of thousands of ozone molecules
can be destroyed by one chlorine atom before it is removed from the
stratosphere. Stratospheric ozone is a key factor in protecting all life
on earth, because it absorbs almost all of the ultraviolet (UV) radia-
tion coming into the earth’s atmosphere, preventing the UV radiation
from reaching ground level. Again, keep in mind that while ozone near
the ground is a pollutant with serious health effects, ozone in the
stratosphere is good and must be protected.
In 1985, the dramatic discovery of a huge ozone “hole” over Ant-
arctica proved the theory of ozone depletion. The hole (as big as the
United States) showed as much as 50% reduction in the protective
Section 1.3 Pollutants of Global Concern 7
ozone layer in that region during the winter months. Since that time,
ozone depletion also has been observed over the northern latitudes,
including parts of Canada, the United States, Europe, and Russia.
Such ozone depletion has likely already accounted for millions of cases
of skin cancers and cataracts among humans, similar effects among
livestock and wild animals, perhaps billions of dollars of damages in
reduced crop yields, and degradation of plastics due to the increased
UV radiation reaching the earth’s surface.
The discovery of the ozone hole was dramatic; it shocked the world
into action. In 1987, 46 countries manufacturing CFCs developed a
treaty (the Montreal Protocol) to reduce CFC production and use on a
scheduled basis, and by 1989, 39 countries had ratified it. In 1992, the
U.S. Congress voted to accelerate the phaseout of CFCs. However, no
provisions have been made for recovering and destroying the millions
of tons of CFCs that still exist in items such as old refrigerators and
old cars. Because CFCs released in the past are still working their way
up to the stratosphere, ozone depletion will be a concern for many
years to come. For more information, a good Web site to visit is
www.epa.gov/docs/ozone/index.html.
Global Climate Change

As severe a problem as ozone depletion is, at least the world has
undertaken steps to solve it. There is, however, another air pollution
problem that far overshadows ozone depletion, and that is global cli-
mate change (GCC). This problem may be the most significant and
the most difficult problem ever faced by humankind. Global climate
change (also called global warming or the greenhouse effect) is a com-
plex issue, and can only be addressed briefly in this text. Nevertheless,
its importance must not be underestimated. Engineers, scientists, and
political leaders throughout the world must constantly be aware of
this problem if we are to mitigate its potentially devastating effects.
The term greenhouse effect is popular but a bit misleading. The
name refers to the retention of infrared (IR) radiation (heat) by certain
gases in the atmosphere before that heat is lost to space. The first rea-
son that the popular name is misleading is that atmospheric heat
retention is essential to life on Earth. Our comfortably warm climate
is only possible because of this heat-trapping ability of (primarily) car-
bon dioxide and water vapor. Without this natural “greenhouse effect”
in our atmosphere, Earth would be approximately 33 degrees C (60
degrees F) colder than it is right now. So, when people talk of the
greenhouse effect, they really refer to the recent, rapid, unwanted
increases in the atmosphere’s heat-retention ability.
An interesting example of the natural greenhouse effect is
obtained by comparing the so-called radiation temperatures (the calcu-
lated average temperatures that would be obtained if there were no
absorption of IR energy by the planetary atmospheres) of Mars, Earth,

and Venus. Mars has essentially no atmosphere, while Venus has a
very dense atmosphere that is 97% carbon dioxide. The results of
these calculations produce the following conclusions (U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency 1983): Mars exhibits a 3-degree C green-
house effect, Earth shows a 33-degree effect, but Venus obtains a huge
temperature boost of 468 degrees C!
Another reason that the term greenhouse effect is misleading is
that it conveys a vision of a mild or gentle warming. However, a
change in the average temperature of the earth of even a few degrees
is certain to result in severe changes in large-scale regional weather
patterns. Therefore, it is not just the warming that is of concern.
Shifting rainfall patterns and ocean currents combined with more
energy retention in the atmosphere likely will result in big increases
in the frequency and intensity of the extremes of weather—such as
hurricanes, tornados, heat waves, droughts, and floods. Major shifts in
rainfall might well result in massive crop failures in some areas, much
like what is thought to have happened in the fertile crescent of the
Middle East 3000 years ago. Another likely major impact is a rise in
average sea level. Kim and associates compiled predictions of sea level
rise by the year 2100 from 16 different sources and performed a statis-
tical analysis. The average prediction (after discarding two outliers)
was 0.94 meters. Even a rise of half this much will flood a large per-
cent of coastal wetlands and severely impact low-lying countries like
Bangladesh, Egypt, and the Netherlands. For all these reasons, we
believe that global climate change is a more descriptive phrase than
greenhouse effect.
An indicator of global warming is the earth’s average global
temperature (AGT). The AGT for the earth in the twentieth century
was about 15 °C, but increased significantly during the last 30 years.
Furthermore, from the depths of the last ice age 18,000 years ago
(when AGT was about 9 °C) to the present time, average global tem-
perature has increased by 6 degrees C (Barnola et al. 1987). This is a
drastic change for AGT, the reasons for which are not completely
understood. Therefore, any examination of recent temperature
records, especially over short periods of time, and especially in trying
to determine cause and effect, must be made with extreme caution.
The AGT is not the best measure of climate change. For one thing,
it is a single number being used to measure a massive and compli-
cated system. Also, averaging temperatures near the poles with other
temperatures near the equator does not allow tracking of any regional
trends. A more precise way to track the changes over time is to mea-
sure the temperature deviation or temperature anomaly at each sta-
tion. The temperature anomalies can be tracked and averaged with
more justification since each tracks the temperature change over time
at just one place. Temperature anomaly is a “noisy” variable (meaning
that the deviations from year to year can be large compared to the rate
of change of the long-term average); nevertheless, it is being reported
and used today by many groups.
The average global temperature anomaly (AGTA) for the
past 130 years is plotted in Figure 1.3. The average of the years 1951
through 1980 is the base period from which the temperature devia-
tions are calculated. Examination of Figure 1.3 reveals an interesting
and sobering trend. From the late 1800s to the mid-1940s, the AGTA
increased by about 0.3 degrees C. From then until about the mid-
1970s, the AGTA fluctuated up and down but showed no trend. Since
the mid-1970s, however, the AGTA has increased by an incredible 0.6
degrees C. The total change over the past 130 years has been about 1.0
degree C. This is a huge temperature change over a very short (geolog-
ical) time period. It seems an almost inescapable conclusion that such
a change must be due in large part to anthropogenic emissions.
As can be seen in Figure 1.3, the bulk of the warming has occurred
in two periods—from 1910 through 1940 and from 1980 to the present.
Part of the argument against global climate change in the past has
been that climate models have been unable to properly reproduce the
temperature deviations (both AGTA and those at various locations
throughout the world). This is especially true of the earlier period of
temperature rise (Zwiers and Weaver 2000). Thus, it was argued that
natural forcings (such as changes in the sun’s intensity and volcanic
0.6
Temperature Anomaly, deg C
0.4
0.2
0
Base period:
1951–1980
-0.2
-0.4
1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Year
Figure 1.3
Recent behavior of average global temperature anomaly (land and ocean
combined).
(Source data from http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp.graphs/)
eruptions) are the predominant cause of global warming. However, in

a comprehensive modeling study using state-of-the-art climate mod-
els, Stott and associates produced excellent agreement of their model
predictions with both land and sea temperature changes over the
entire period from 1860 through the end of the twentieth century
(Stott et al. 2000). They included both natural and anthropogenic forc-
ings, and showed that both must be considered. They further extended
their model to the year 2100 with a standard set of assumptions for
continued emissions. The resulting prediction was that average tem-
peratures rise by 2.5 °C over the next 100 years (as compared with an
average rise of 0.9 °C over the past 100 years).
Sources of Global Climate Change

The main contributor to global climate change over the past cen-
tury has been carbon dioxide; however, three other gases are now sig-
nificant—methane, nitrous oxide, and CFCs. First we will discuss the
effects of carbon dioxide, then we will return to the importance of
these other gases.
The idea of a greenhouse effect—that is, that the burning of fossil
fuels puts more carbon dioxide into the air, which in turn warms the
earth—is not a new idea. It was first published in a scientific journal
by a Swedish chemist, Svante Arrhenius, back in 1896. Arrhenius had
noticed that people of his day were burning more and more wood and
coal, and he put two and two together. According to Weiner (1990),
Arrhenius summed it all up as follows:
We are evaporating our coal mines into the air. . . . [which must
eventually cause] a change in the transparency of the atmosphere.
According to Pilson (2006) however, while Arrhenius might have
believed this to be true, there is no evidence that he ever actually
wrote this whole sentence.
The main source of excess carbon dioxide emissions into the atmo-
sphere is the burning of fossil fuels—coal, oil, and gas. Worldwide, coal is
the biggest source of energy for electricity and is the biggest contributor
to carbon emissions. Liquid petroleum is the second largest source of
carbon emissions. Worldwide, energy consumed by burning liquid petro-
leum fuels (mainly for transportation) is actually greater than the
energy consumed by coal, but accounts for slightly less carbon emissions.
Natural gas combustion is the third largest source of carbon dioxide.
Global CO2 emissions are measured in gigatons (Gt). One Gt is one
billion metric tons—a very large number. The emissions can be
reported as either Gt of CO2 or as Gt of carbon (C); the two are related
by the ratio of their molecular weights. Table 1.1 presents data on the
history of CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels by geographic
area of the world. Note the huge growth in Asia (mostly due to China
and India).
Table 1.1 World CO2 Emissions from the Burning of Fossil Fuels, Gt of CO2
Geographic area 1980 1990 2000 2006

North America 5.49 5.81 6.81 6.95
Central & South America 0.63 0.72 0.99 1.13
Europe 4.71 4.57 4.50 4.72
Eurasia 3.09 3.83 2.36 2.60
Middle East 1.49 0.73 1.09 1.51
Africa 0.54 0.73 0.89 1.06
Asia & Oceania 3.56 5.30 7.37 11.22
World total 18.50 21.68 24.01 29.20
Source: Energy Information Administration, Dept. of Energy: http://www.eia.doe.gov/iea/

carbon.html
444444444
Example 1.1
Assume an average car in the United States gets 20 miles per gal-
lon of gasoline, is driven 12,000 miles per year, and weighs 3500
pounds. Further assume that gasoline weighs 5.9 pounds per gallon
and contains 85% carbon by weight. Is there any truth to the state-
ment that each car emits its own weight in carbon dioxide each year!?
Next, given that there are about 800 million vehicles worldwide,
estimate the annual global carbon emissions from motor vehicles. Give
your answer in Teragrams (1 Tg = 1 trillion grams = 1 million metric
tons) per year.
Solution
The carbon contained in the gasoline burned annually is
12, 000 mi 1 gal 5.9 lbs 3010 lbs C
¥ ¥ ¥ 0.85 =
year 20 mi gal year
The carbon dioxide emitted is
3010 lbs C/yr ¥ 44 lb CO2 /12 lb C = 11,040 lbs CO2 /yr
So the average U.S. car emits much more than its own weight in car-
bon dioxide each year!
To estimate worldwide emissions from vehicles, we must make a
number of gross assumptions as to the average vehicle in the world
(including cars, trucks, buses, mopeds, and so on). Let us assume that
the average vehicle in the world travels 24,000 km per year, gets 9 km
per liter, and burns fuel with a density of 0.75 kg/L and with a carbon
content of 87%. With these assumptions, annual carbon emissions
from vehicles are:
24, 000 km 1L 0.75 kg 6 1 Tg

¥ ¥ ¥ 0.87 ¥ 800 (10) veh ¥ 9 =
year 9 km L 10 kg
1392 Tg
(about 1.4 billion metric tons/yr or about 1.4 Gt/yr)
year
It is interesting to note that the answer from this simple approach

compares favorably with published estimates.

Altogether it is estimated that about 29 Gt of carbon dioxide
(about 7.9 Gt of C) per year are emitted worldwide from the combus-
tion of fossil fuels (EIA 2008). The burning of fossil fuels is the major
contributor to the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, but it is not
the only contributor—deforestation has been a big contributor over
the past three centuries. In the more recent past, decomposing solid
waste in landfills has become a significant contributor, especially with
regard to methane emissions.
Deforestation hurts in two ways. First, when large tracts of forest
lands are cleared and burned (almost all the wood is burned within
months of clearing)—and, by the way, they are being cleared at an
incredible rate worldwide—a lot of tree-stored carbon gets put back
into the atmosphere. Second, deforestation decreases that part of the
earth’s biomass that removes CO2 from the air. Trees are especially
good at storing carbon and keeping it out of the air for years.
The earth’s biomass (plants and animals) used to be essentially
balanced with regard to uptake and release of carbon dioxide. How-
ever, because of huge increases in human population and huge
decreases in forestlands over the past 300 years, the forest biomass is
now much smaller. Reasonable estimates of net biomass additions of
carbon emissions to the air range between 0.5 and 1.6 billion metric
tons per year (Leggett 1990).
Other processes remove carbon dioxide from the air besides the
photosynthesis activity of trees. The oceans are the major sink for
CO2, holding far more CO2 than the atmosphere. Plankton and other
plants in the water remove CO2 through photosynthesis like plants on
land. Also, CO2 dissolves directly from the air into the water. How-
ever, the oceans also release CO2 back into the air, and right now the
oceans and the atmosphere are pretty much in balance, with a little
more CO2 going into the oceans than is coming out (IPCC 2007).
The fact remains that about 7.9 Gt of carbon (29 Gt of CO2) con-
tinue to be added to our air every year by the burning of fossil fuels.
The oceans are absorbing more CO2 than they are releasing, and other
recent changes in land use (including reforestation in many areas) are
helping to absorb some of those excess emissions. But there continues
to be an accumulation of CO2 in the air. Over the last hundred years
or so, about half of the new emissions have remained airborne (Mas-
ters 1991), steadily increasing the CO2 content of the atmosphere.
Based on measurements of air bubbles trapped in glacial ice corings, it
is widely accepted that, prior to the industrial revolution, the carbon
dioxide content of the atmosphere was fairly stable at 280 parts per
million (ppm). [Parts per million is a common unit of measure for gas
concentrations and will be defined later in Eq. (1.4).] By 1900, the
level had reached about 300 ppm, reflecting the net increase in global
emissions of carbon dioxide.
In 1958, the first accurate and precise measurements of atmo-
spheric CO2 concentrations were begun by Charles D. Keeling at the
Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii (see Figure 1.4). His now-classic
work showed that the 1958 concentration of CO2 was 315 ppm (Bacas-
tow, Keeling, and Whorf 1982). Compared with the CO2 level of 200
years earlier, the 1958 level of 315 ppm was a 12.5% increase (giving
an average annual rate of increase over two centuries of 0.0625% per
year). By 1980, the CO2 level was 340 ppm, and by 2008 it had
reached 387 ppm—a 22% increase from its 1958 value (giving an aver-
age rate over 50 years of 0.44% per year, a sevenfold increase in the
rate of growth).
The other three gases in the atmosphere that are responsible for
the recent increases in the heat retention capability of the atmo-
400
390
CO2 concentration, ppmv
380
370
360
350
340
330
320
310
300
1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Year
Figure 1.4
Growth in concentration of atmospheric CO2 as measured at Mauna Loa,
Hawaii.
Note: Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 are expressed in parts per million by volume
(ppmv) and reported as a dry mole fraction.
(Source: Tans, P. “Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide.” National Oceanic & Atmospheric
Administration, Earth System Research Laboratory, n.d. Accessed March 2010 from http://
www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends)
sphere are methane, nitrous oxide, and CFCs. All have increased rap-
idly. Methane grew from 1.48 ppm in 1978 to 1.69 ppm in 1988, a
14% increase in 10 years. Nitrous oxide (N2O) grew from 296 parts
per billion (ppb) in 1978 to 307 ppb in 1989, a 4% increase. CFC-11
concentration in the atmosphere grew from about 157 parts per tril-
lion (ppt) in 1978 to 232 ppt in 1987 (Studt 1991), a 48% increase in
nine years.
There have been a number of estimates made about how much of a
contribution each of these gases makes to the overall warming effect.
Each gas absorbs infrared differently, with some CFCs being as much
as 15,000 times as powerful as carbon dioxide (molecule for molecule)
in terms of heat retention. Previous estimates (Flavin 1989) put the
relative contributions as follows: carbon dioxide, 57%; CFCs, 25%;
methane, 12%; and nitrous oxide, 6%, based on their concentrations in
the air. However, based on more recent data regarding the current
rates of emissions of all these gases (EIA 2008), carbon dioxide emis-
sions have grown much faster, and it is now thought to have a relative
contribution of more than 75% of the total.
There is no doubt that greenhouse gases are increasing rapidly in
our atmosphere. AGT appears to be increasing as well, but what evi-
dence is there that global climate change is occurring? Other evidence
of global warming is more anecdotal, partly because the weather is
subject to large fluctuations from season to season and from year to
year, and partly because the earth is so huge that it takes a long time
for real changes to show up. “Real changes” are defined here as those
that are large enough to say “without a doubt” that they are not part
of the “noise” (normal random fluctuations about the mean), and that
they are caused by global warming. However, there are several exam-
ples of anecdotes that seem particularly compelling. The U.S. Weather
Service keeps temperature records that show that 8 of the 10 hottest
years in the previous century occurred in the ten years from 1990
through 1999. The year 2000 was the warmest in the twentieth cen-
tury. There were widespread incidents of droughts and fires through-
out the United States during the 1990s. The Inuit Indians in
northwestern Canada have stated in research interviews that there
are fewer seals and polar bears to hunt due to thinning sea-ice, and
warmer weather has brought more mosquitoes that stay longer
(Orlando Sentinel 2000). Biologists have noted that the range where
certain butterflies live has crept northward by more than 100 miles
during the past 30 years. It was noticed in the year 2000 (for the first
time since such observations have been recorded) that there was no
solid ice—only open water—at the north pole.
Because there are so many apparently random influences on local
weather, and so much natural variation from place to place and from
year to year, most people cannot grasp the concept of climate changes
over a 100- to 200-year period. They want hard scientific evidence of
cause and effect in weather differences over, say, a five-year period. So

far, the changes in climate due to GCC have been small enough to be
largely masked by the “noise” in the system. Despite the many pieces
of anecdotal evidence, there are still many skeptics. A common techni-
cal criticism is that local surface temperature measurements may be
contaminated by local urban heat island effects. Temperature records
at rural sites, and records of sea surface temperatures, do not show
the same rapidly increasing trends that have been observed at urban
sites. For more data and discussions of some of the technical issues
involved with GCC, there are numerous sites on the Web that have
good information. There are also many that have old or erroneous
information, or that advance one agenda or another. But two sites
appear fact-filled and reliable:
• http://www.giss.nasa.gov/
• http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/index.html/
Everyone agrees that steps to mitigate GCC are very expensive,
and may require substantial sacrifices by many people. It has been
argued that to undertake such steps prematurely would be foolish.
However, to wait much longer may be even more foolish. Many people
are now calling for action, and many governments around the world
(and even individual states within the United States) have begun tak-
ing actions to reduce emissions of CO2. Our global climate models,
while good, are far from perfect. Yet, these models do predict that
major effects will occur within the next several decades. The sad fact
is that the inertia of the earth-atmosphere system is so great that,
once begun, these changes cannot easily nor quickly be reversed.
What Can We Do?

Anecdotal evidence suggests that GCC has already begun. World
political leaders created the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and opened it for signatures in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992. By June 1993, there were 66 country
signatories to the “Rio Accord,” and now many more have joined. This
was a very general treaty, but established three very important agree-
ments. First, it acknowledged that there was a problem, that the prob-
lem likely was of human making, and that countries should begin
taking steps to address the problem. Second, it strongly supported the
concept of sustainable development for future growth. Third, it laid
the groundwork for future, more specific agreements.
The Kyoto Protocol was one subsequent product of the UNFCCC.
This agreement was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997, and
as of September 2000 had 84 signatories. The Kyoto Protocol com-
mits the industrial countries to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to
7% below their 1990 levels by 2008–2012. Assuming normal eco-
nomic growth, this is projected to be about 20–30% below the level of
emissions that otherwise would be occurring at that time. Many

actions to achieve the reductions, including emissions trading, are
allowed. The United States and a number of other countries have not
ratified this treaty; the U.S. has stated that meaningful commit-
ments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions must be made by devel-
oping countries as well.
In our view, the United States needs to be a leader in adopting an
energy policy that stresses reducing carbon emissions. A strong com-
mitment to energy conservation and to the rapid development of com-
mercial solar power should be the cornerstones of our national policy.
In addition, it might prove necessary to capture carbon dioxide from
the stack gases of fossil fuel-fired power plants, and then sequester it
underground (Abelson 2000). While expensive, this would be a direct
and effective way to reduce emissions to the atmosphere. A strong
international commitment is also needed to control emissions of trace
gases. We as a nation should strive to halt deforestation and encour-
age reforestation in countries around the world. Finally, we as a
nation should work toward world population control.
In the interim, what can be done by citizens? Obviously, as individ-
uals we can reduce our own energy consumption, we can reduce waste,
we can plant trees locally, and, by our purchasing practices, we can
encourage recycling and product substitution in all areas that involve
the greenhouse gases. As environmental engineers, we should each
maintain a keen awareness of this issue, and be prepared to discuss it
publicly. We should try to get involved politically and to educate our
political and industrial leaders. And of course, in the application of our
profession, we must continue to look for ways to improve technology to
reduce emissions and/or find alternative sources for energy and certain
products. We must all do all we can to try to mitigate global climate
change. Let us follow the popular advice—think globally, act locally.
Unfortunately, the discussion in this section has been an all-
too-brief review of the complex issues of global climate change. How-
ever, as stated earlier, the focus of this book is on the engineering
design and analysis of air pollution control systems. These systems
typically are built to control local or regional air pollution problems,
and thus, our attention will focus on the major pollutants as defined
earlier. However, because the U.S. EPA declared CO2 a pollutant in
2009, it is now appropriate, within the framework of this text, to con-
sider the engineering controls of carbon dioxide. To that end, the
authors have added Chapter 22, which is devoted to carbon dioxide
prevention, capture, and disposal.
Before we discuss the causes, sources, and effects of the major pol-
lutants, we will briefly review the legislative and regulatory history of
air pollution control. If we are familiar with the events of the past, we
may be better able to deal effectively with the future.
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DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)
The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.
NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.
MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]
MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY
With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
“We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
BRAZIER
Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT
SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB
CUTTING THE EDGE

FINISHING THE BOTTOM
LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING
FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE
TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL
NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK
DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG
REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

BEATING THE BARK
WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT
MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN

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Air Pollution Control: A Design

Approach 4th Edition ■ Ebook PDF

Preface to the Fourth Edition xv

2 What Is Process Design? 75

3 Particulate Matter 111

5 Electrostatic Precipitators 161

6 Fabric Filters 193

7 Particulate Scrubbers 231

8 Auxiliary Equipment: Hoods, Ducts, Fans, and Coolers 263

9 A Particulate Control Problem 313

10 Properties of Gases and Vapors 327

10.5 Chemical Reactions 334

11 VOC Incinerators 343

12 Gas Adsorption 385

12.6 Economics of Fixed-Bed Adsorption Systems 407

13 Gas Absorption 417

14 Biological Control of VOCs and Odors 455

15 Control of Sulfur Oxides 485

15.4 Mercury Control 516

16 Control of Nitrogen Oxides 523

17 A Vapor Control Problem 561

18 Mobile Sources: An Overview 573

19 Air Pollution and Meteorology 613

19.3 Local Circulation Effects 619

20 Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling 651

21 Indoor Air Quality and Control 695

22 Control of Carbon Dioxide 721

Engineers working in air pollution control have many responsibil-

xvi Preface to the Fourth Edition

Back in 2000, Phillip Abelson, editor of Science, endorsed the idea

As I was walking in your Majesties Palace at Whitehall . . . a pre-

2 Chapter One An Overview

duction of electricity for domestic use. Although isolated air pollution

 1.2 Definitions and Types of Pollutants

Section 1.2 Definitions and Types of Pollutants 3

diameter (PM-10 and PM-2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide

4 Chapter One An Overview

Emission rate, millions tons/year 40

Section 1.2 Definitions and Types of Pollutants 5

6 Chapter One An Overview

 1.3 Pollutants of Global Concern

Section 1.3 Pollutants of Global Concern 7

Global Climate Change

8 Chapter One An Overview

absorption of IR energy by the planetary atmospheres) of Mars, Earth,

Section 1.3 Pollutants of Global Concern 9

10 Chapter One An Overview

eruptions) are the predominant cause of global warming. However, in

Sources of Global Climate Change

Section 1.3 Pollutants of Global Concern 11

Geographic area 1980 1990 2000 2006

Source: Energy Information Administration, Dept. of Energy: http://www.eia.doe.gov/iea/

12 Chapter One An Overview

24, 000 km 1L 0.75 kg 6 1 Tg

It is interesting to note that the answer from this simple approach

Section 1.3 Pollutants of Global Concern 13

14 Chapter One An Overview

Section 1.3 Pollutants of Global Concern 15

cause and effect in weather differences over, say, a five-year period. So

What Can We Do?

16 Chapter One An Overview

emissions that otherwise would be occurring at that time. Many

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least