Quote:
Originally Posted by CaliNative
In most sources, the birth of the "smog" era in L.A. has been placed in the WW2 boom in manufacturing for the war. But I've noticed in many of the pics from the 1920s and even earlier a "haze". I wonder if some of this was smog? Are there any pre-WW2 references to air pollution in the L.A. area? Anybody know? I do recall that some of the early Spanish explorers noticed "smoke", presumably from fires, hanging over the basin.
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The geography of Southern California is usually ignored in discussions of smog-haze.
As can be seen in the name is a combination of smoke and fog.
The surrounding mountains and the deserts beyond- desert because the mountains keep moist air from the Pacific Ocean at bay er, well you know .
As I was about to say, seasonal changes are a giant engine
in Spring and SUmmer, the heat in the desrt makes that air rise , pulling air from the west- moist over-ocean air which makes the 'June Gloom" and haze. in the 1950s real pollution, from industry and hiway transportation and backyard incinerators stuck to the haze. THe mountains aid formation/preservation of the inversion layer that traps the mix and cooks it into smog, which brought tears, sore throats and sore chests to folks who breathed it.
When a high pressure dome builds over Utah air flow reverses and the coll desert air is pushed thru the passes to the lower elevation . That fall is called adiabatic heating but we just call it Santa Ana conditions.
Enough of this with one more point
In addition to real haze, film was originally only sensitive to blue light. Moisture in the air scatters blue light and in old photos exaggerates the appearance of haze to a degree. Even modern films, yes there still are some, needs filtration to cut the blue-scatter and let the other colors be recorded, particularly with long lenses such as telephotos
To appreciate what a reeeeeeellllly clear day was like in, say 1910-ish, find a photo made from Echo Mtn - easily accessed via Pacific Electric-which shows the coastal plain distant. If the air hadn't been VERY dry, all down at the level of PAsadena, Los Angeles, etc would have been made invisible.
MAVENS- get us an example pic please