"Smog is made up of ..." advert issued by the North Eastern Gas Board, Leeds, design by Eric Fraser : in The West Riding of Yorkshire official handbook, c1955
An advert from the highly informative 1955 official guide issued by the West Riding of Yorkshire County Council. Most Briitsh local authorities issued such books, often produced for them as this is by the Cheltenham concern of E. Burrow. They describe the Council's services, the charms of the county, its boroughs and cities and the opportunities for both residential and industrial development. They are often a real 'snapshot' of the place at that time.
This particular advert, very pertinent in the mid-1950s as the serious, deadly issue of air pollution and smog sadly became very real, was issued as a generic with appropriate lettering for either area baords as here or for the Gas Council nationally. It, of course, includes the famous figure of the industry Mr Therm who had been created by the designer Eric Fraser in the early 1930s for the London Gas Light & Coke Company and who was so successfully adopted by the wider town gas industry until retirement in the late 1960s thanks to North Sea Gas.
The industry promoted itself as a 'clean fuel' extensively - quietly ignoring a track record of often poor pollution control in earlier gas works, as the by-products of town gas production and coal carbonisation did indeed remove much of the pollution of open grate burning, such as for heating, of coal. The carbonisation also yielded many chemicals that were increasingly important feedstocks for other idnustries such as plastics, fuel additives, etc., until eclipsed by the oil industry and the loss of town gas production when replaced by Natural Gas.
"Smog is made up of ..." advert issued by the North Eastern Gas Board, Leeds, design by Eric Fraser : in The West Riding of Yorkshire official handbook, c1955
An advert from the highly informative 1955 official guide issued by the West Riding of Yorkshire County Council. Most Briitsh local authorities issued such books, often produced for them as this is by the Cheltenham concern of E. Burrow. They describe the Council's services, the charms of the county, its boroughs and cities and the opportunities for both residential and industrial development. They are often a real 'snapshot' of the place at that time.
This particular advert, very pertinent in the mid-1950s as the serious, deadly issue of air pollution and smog sadly became very real, was issued as a generic with appropriate lettering for either area baords as here or for the Gas Council nationally. It, of course, includes the famous figure of the industry Mr Therm who had been created by the designer Eric Fraser in the early 1930s for the London Gas Light & Coke Company and who was so successfully adopted by the wider town gas industry until retirement in the late 1960s thanks to North Sea Gas.
The industry promoted itself as a 'clean fuel' extensively - quietly ignoring a track record of often poor pollution control in earlier gas works, as the by-products of town gas production and coal carbonisation did indeed remove much of the pollution of open grate burning, such as for heating, of coal. The carbonisation also yielded many chemicals that were increasingly important feedstocks for other idnustries such as plastics, fuel additives, etc., until eclipsed by the oil industry and the loss of town gas production when replaced by Natural Gas.