From Cotton and Smoke: Łódź Industrial City and Discourses of Asynchronous Modernity 1897-1994

The city greeted newcomers with mysterious “characteristic, dirty fog on the horizon, which constantly hangs above the capital of chimneys.” Directly after arrival “the smoke wrapped [newcomers] in some impenetrable, due to its sultriness, atmosphere”. Gradually, from this “gigantic cloud of smoke” surfaced “a forest of brick chimneys emerging to the sky” and with “a proud hatred throwing to the sky smoke, fire and ashes”, creating “an impression that a legion of blazing volcanoes embraced the proletarian city.” Entry to this urban area from the rural surrounding stimulated fascination and repulsion. It triggered the state of shock.