That’s not fog. That’s smoke.

I recently came across a slideshow of pictures from the Smoke Control Lantern Slide Collection, an archive of pictures from 1940-1950 kept by the University of Pittsburgh. The pictures chronicle the affects of industrialization on air quality in the 1940s and the transition in Pittsburgh from pre-“smoke control” laws to post-“smoke control” laws. It’s pretty disturbing to see how filthy the air was on a daily basis. And while I think we still have a lot of work to do in terms of emissions control today, these pictures demonstrate we’ve definitely come a long way!