THE HONOURABLE ORDER OF SMOKE- LADEN TOWNS

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Writers in the Spectator on atmospheric impurities seem to have acquired the habit of slandering Sheffield when they desire to emphasize a special point in their tirade against the smoke nuisance. The writer of the article entitled " Clean the Skies " in the Spectator of March 6th dragged Sheffield into his argument with a confident personal assurance that seemed to require no evidence to establish the special guilt of Sheffield in this particular case. Mr. Nicholson, smoke inspector of Sheffield, in your issure of the following week, gave a lucid account of the conditions here, which, in its calm imper- sonal statement of actual facts, was convincing of the real position in relation to smoke, or " The Plutonian darkness of gheffield," as the first writer described it.

May I give some authentic figures of the distribution (or reception) of sunshine, void of any personal equation, to show the amount of sunshine recorded in other places where the k in:distill:1 and residential conditions.are analogous ? I have recently received from the Meteorological Office " A Summary of the Weather hi Britain for 1925," the year being therein described as a " Normal Year." From the tables of " Bright gimshine " I have copied the• following

Daily mean.

zersey 5.27

Hours per day.

Deviation from normal.

+0.03 Per cent. 43 Bournemouth .. 4.96

+0.05 41 Hastings 4.95 • • +0.03 41 Douglas 4.55

• •

+0.14 37 Blackpool - 4.13

-0.24 34 Liverpool (Bidston) 4.02

33 Harrogate .. 3.77

-0.14 31 Scarborough .. 3.75

• •

-0.10 31 Leicester, Belvoir

Castle .. 3.59

-0.62 29 Sheffield . .. 3.56

-0.05 29

London (Westm's• )

ter 3.55

+0.25 29 Coventry . . 3.44

-0.31 28 ' York .. .. 3.38

-0.08 28 . Leeds .. 3.34

27 Bradford 3.30

27 Buxton 3.26

27 'Worksop .. 3.26

-0.17

27 Huddersfield .. 3.13

26 London (City) Bun- hill Row .. 3.11

• •

-0.08 25

Hull .. 3.07

25

Nottingham 3.06

-0.57 25

Burnley 3.01

25

Birmingham .. 2.98

• •

-0.13 24 Manchester, Whit- worth Park ..

2.94

24

- Bolton .. 2.91

24

Manchester, Oldham

Road .. .. 2.66

• •

-0.23

22 The figures for Liverpool are taken from the sunshine recorded at the observatory on Bidston Hill, Cheshire, which is about a mile beyond the shore of the mile-wide river Mersey on the opposite side to Liverpool, and has no obvious relation to the conditions in that city. The figures for Leeds were supplied by Mr. H. Crowther, Curator of Museum.-I am

Sir, &c., E. HOWARTH. Museum and Art Gallery, Sheffi51d.