100 years ago

An interesting report of atmospheric pollution in Hull had been submitted to the meeting of the Health Committee of the Corporation by the city analyst.

The report was based on the readings of a soot gauge for the month of March.

It was reported that to anyone unfamiliar with the figures published during recent years of the amounts of solid impurities deposited on the ground from the air owing largely to the contamination of the latter by smoke, the results would be little short of astounding.

Assuming that the character and amount of the deposit all over the city were the same, it was calculated that the total suspended matter falling in the city per month amounted to no less than 273 tons, and the total quantity of tarry matters falling per month, 3 tons.


50 years ago

Vandals cut the head off Copenhagen’s famous “Little Mermaid” statue during the night.

The bronze statue — representing a character out of Hans Andersen’s fairy tales — was on a large stone by the water’s edge in Copenhagen Harbour and traditionally welcomed visitors to the Danish capital.

The Mermaid, by sculptor Edvard Eriksen, was erected in 1913 and had become a symbol of Copenhagen.

The bronze statue, which had often been the target for vandals, who had painted it and hung underclothing on it, was about three feet high and showed a sad mermaid sitting on a huge granite boulder.

Police said the head had been cut off cleanly with a metal saw, a job which would have taken over an hour of hard work.

The vandals took the head with them and left no other traces. Mr Johan Pedersen, architect of the Monument Department, said that the statue would be removed and the casting of a new head would begin the following week.

He said: “When we have finished, the statue will be exactly as it was before.” The casting of the new head would be made from the original forms, which had been preserved.


25 years ago

Thirty of the world’s leading scientists and experts on climate change would speak at a special environment “teach-in” organised by the Prime Minister at Downing Street.

They would brief Mrs Thatcher and her ministers on the threatened rise in sea levels due to “greenhouse effect” gases emitted by coal-burning power stations.

The problems of ozone depletion and the possibility of an increase in cancer-causing ultra-violet rays from the sun would also be high on the agenda.

The Prime Minister was keen for a “Green Bill” to be introduced into Parliament at the first opportunity.