Melvin Prueitt of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico
received patents last January for an air purifying tower for
large smog- filled cities. At the top of the 650-foot tower,
which would be made of metal beams covered with a fiberglass
shell, a spray of fine, electrostatically charged mist would
humidify the air. It would make the air cooler and cause it to
sink, thus creating a downdraft that would suck more air into
the tower. Since pollutants would cling to the charged droplets,
they would be washed away when the mist condenses at the bottom
of the tower. Clean air, humidified by the remaining water
vapor, would waft out of the bottom. Prueitt figures that a mere
190 towers could scrub the smog out of a city like Los Angeles
without inflicting noticeable aesthetic damage to the skyline.