In 1927 O. P. Wood, mechanical engineer of the State Bureau of Mines, suggested that a survey of smoke and soot in the Knoxville area was needed. Due to political difficulties, the city could not obtain the necessary funds to do this. So the university as a whole, and the Department of Chemistry in particular, sponsored the work by allowing seniors in chemical engineering to do the work and have it count as their thesis. The work was particularly valuable because it provided a basis for comparing the degree of nuisance in the Knoxville area with that of other cities and showed the relative amount of soot that resulted from railroads, factories, and homes by comparing the soot-fall in different neighborhoods and during different months of the year.