Hell with the lid taken off: The pictures of bygone Pittsburgh and its residents choking under cloud

'Hell with the lid taken off': The pictures of bygone Pittsburgh and its residents choking under clouds of thick smog

• The pea-souper problem was once so bad that clouds of smoke and pollution would block out the midday sun
  
• Photographs from the 1950s show just how badly the U.S. city suffered before laws on coal burning were introduced
  

By Lawrence Conway

Published: 05:00 EST, 7 June 2012 | Updated: 05:04 EST, 7 June 2012

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The thick pea-soupers that hung over British cities until the 1950s live on in the memory of those who experienced the life threatening smogs.

But a new collection of photographs featuring Pittsburgh in the 1940s and 1950s show people living in the American industrial city suffered just as badly.

Pollution was once so bad in Pittsburgh that it could block out the midday sun. The scale of the problem is revealed in pictures from the Smoke Control Lantern Slide Collection at the archives of the University of Pittsburgh.

Danger: Crowds of people in Pittsburgh go about their business with a thick smog visibly filling the air and clouding the tops of surrounding buildings

Daylight: The smog in 1950s Pittsburgh was so thick at times that it could block out the midday sun, but for decades people were unaware of the dangers the thick clouds of coal smoke and industrial pollution posed to people's health in the U.S. city

Danger: Clouds of choking pollution once shrouded the skyscrapers of Pittsburgh before authorities took action by banning the burning of coal in the American city

The problem in Pittsburgh had been a long standing one with Victorian-era British novelist and Londoner Anthony Trollope writing that Pittsburgh was 'without exception is the blackest place which I ever saw'.

Despite his grimy review, the lack of alternative fuels in the 19th century made introducing smoke controls difficult. Also lots of people thought that high smoke output was a sign of high productivity and that coal smoke was good for the lungs and helped crops grow.

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The photographic collection was put together to highlight the history of the city's smoke control laws which were first passed in 1941, but then delayed by the Second World War leaving residents choking in the fumes for more than a decade longer.

Looming: As cars and pedestrians go about their daily business the thick clouds of smog cut down visibility, leaving the view between the city's tall buildings hidden even during the day

Horror: The collection of Pittsburgh smog pictures has been put together by the U.S. city's university to show how bad the problem was and how laws were eventually introduced to restrict the burning of coal to tackle the dangerous problem

Past: The smog which engulfed Pittsburgh for decades was initially thought to be good for crops and a proud symbol of the city's industrial progress and energy

An essay called Pittsburg by James Parton which first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly's January 1868 edition detailed how the problem had been plaguing the city since the 19th century.

He described conditions in the city, where 230,000 people lived at the time, by writing 'walking up a long hill to Cliff Street in Pittsburg, and looking over into hell with the lid taken off.'

He said: 'The town lies low, as at the bottom of an excavation, just visible through the mingled smoke and mist, and every object in it is black. Smoke, smoke, smoke - everywhere smoke.'

Industry: This picture shows a factory chimney spewing out smoke in the city, adding to Pittsburgh's intense air pollution problem which was once so bad the midday sun could be blocked out

Visibility: The Pittsburgh smog hides a huge building even at close range, with the upper floors invisible and the buildings outline blurred by the combination of industrial pollution and coal fire smoke

While air quality in Pittsburgh have improved greatly since the 1950s, the thick pea soupers which can kill young and elderly people, remain a problem in newly industrialised countries.

In China last week foreign embassies were warned by a senior official that issuing air pollution readings were illegal and interfering in its internal business.

Official forecasts in the Chinese capital Beijing, which is home to 20 million people, often predict light pollution - even when the city is shrouded in haze.

Life: Car exhaust fumes added to the Pittsburgh smog which was a problem in the industrialised U.S. city for decades until new laws on burning coal were introduced in the 1950s

Shroud: Industrialisation brought wealth to Pittsburgh, but the resulting smog became to high a price to pay with officials eventually realising action was needed to tackle the longstanding problem

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