Abstract
During the first half of the nineteenth century most of the larger towns in Britain experienced great change, including a dramatic increase in population, a decline in the quality of the environment and a marked deterioration in living conditions of most inhabitants. Thus in 1800 the population of Manchester (including Salford) was about 90,000, and by 1850 the population had risen to 400,000. Accompanying this dramatic change was the growth of Manchester as an industrial town with cotton as the principal industry. Friedrich Engels vividly described the situation in The Conditions of the Working Class in England. It was a time of environmental crisis with the quality of air and water called into question. The use of coal as a source of fuel in both the factory and the home added to the environmental blight!1
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References
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Reed, P. (1998). Robert Angus Smith and the Alkali Inspectorate. In: Homburg, E., Travis, A.S., Schröter, H.G. (eds) The Chemical Industry in Europe, 1850–1914. Chemists and Chemistry, vol 17. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3253-6_9
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