I spent my formative years in Middlesbrough; an industrial northern town situated next to the North York Moors National Park; one of the most beautiful areas of England. Sadly, the same could not be said of Middlesbrough, at least not when I lived there. The city was a centre for the steel and chemicals industry; and the latter in particular was responsible for levels of pollution that would never be tolerated today outside of China.
The culprit was a company called Imperial Chemical Industries, or as they were known locally, The I.C.I. I can still recall walking out of our front door into a foul-smelling yellow mist that would irritate the throat and water the eyes; and would linger for days. The abuse was tolerated because the I.C.I. was a significant employer in the area. If you didn’t work for them, you knew someone who did. My father didn’t, he was a salesman for a nut and bolt distributor (oh, the glamour); and when I was not choking on my way to school, I would spend my holidays working in the nut and bolt warehouse which was conveniently located opposite an abattoir.
The stink of the abattoir, mixed with the yellow mist from the chemical works, ensured an asthmatic and stinky childhood.
And why am I reminded of this? Well. as is so often the case, it’s thanks to Nik. Tired of purchasing crap lenses from eBay, he is now purchasing ancient and rather tatty photographic texts, like this one:
The contents is rather obscure; but there is some good advice on the first page:
What is the proper distance at which to place the subject from the lens? In answer it may be safely asserted, that is should not, as a rule, be less than 12 feet, nor perhaps more than 24 feet. For if less than this, the resulting picture will generally be defective in both definition and perspective, because the lens producing it will be of too short a focus. If the distance is greater, the resulting picture will probably be deficient in relief or roundness, because the atmosphere in our towns is seldom free from fog or haze.
So, in 1892, you couldn’t see clearly beyond 24 feet (7 metres, 85 carrots); which is even worse than the visibility in Middlesbrough when I was a lad, and a lot less than the 100 plus feet that you get in Bangkok on a good day. Things do seem to be getting better, even cameras have improved slightly.
