The Borsig mechanical engineering plant and iron foundry on Chausseestraße in Berlin. The Berlin locomotive manufacturer August Borsig (1804–1854) started from modest beginnings as a tradesman. He used practical sense and a talent for business to build up one of the leading industrial enterprises in Germany. With its vivid depiction of belching smokestacks, this painting illustrates one major downside of rapid industrialization—the harmful effects of air pollution on the environment and on the health of both workers and people living near the factories. Painting by Karl Eduard Biermann (1803–1892), 1847.