CHIMNEY sweeping. Smoke, in its pass age through a chimney, deposits a great part of the soot with which it is loaded, upon the sides of the flue, which causes danger from fire, and is besides apt to fall back into the room. It is therefore fre quently necessary to have the flues clean ed. To effect this, various expedients have been resorted to, but that most corn. monly adopted is the use of climbing boys, who ascend within the chimney and sweep down the soot. The evils of this disagreeable and unwholesome oc cupation to those engaged in it are ge nerally acknowledged, and of late years the public attention has been directed to this subject, and premiums offered for the discovery of methods which might be substituted to a practice so offensive to humanity.
In the year 1802, a number of public spirited and wealthy persons in London associated for this purpose, and offered considerable premiums to those who might invent, and bring into practice, a method of cleansing chimneys, by me chanical means, that should supersede the necessity of climbing boys. Feeling themselves, perhaps, inadequate to the task of carrying their laudable intentions into full execution, they applied to the " Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures," &c. in the Adelplu, requesting them to engage in it, and to offer premiums on the subject. In con. sequence of this application, the society offered their gold medal to the person, who should invent the most effectual me chanical or other means for cleansing chimnies from soot, and obviating the ne cessity of children being employed with in the flues. In a few months there were five candidates for this premium, whose several inventions were put to the test of experiment upon chimnies not less than 70 feet high. One of the inventions con sisted of a set of brushes with pullies and weights, which were to be let down from the top of the chimney ; but as the ob. ject was to find an apparatus to effect the purpose from the inside of the house, this was deemed unfit to accomplish the views of the society. Another gentle man proposed the plan of throwing gra vel up the chimney by means of con densed air : the machine was tried, and deemed wholly inadequate to the pur pose. A third apparatus consisted of elastic rods of whale-bone and cane, with a brush at the end of the upper one, which was found to answer only in short and straight chimnies. The next consist ed of laths several feet long, which lock ed into one another, and on the upper one was fixed an elastic expanding brush, which, in its ascending and contracted state, occupied a space of only six or eight inches, but which was to be open ed, when forced to the top of the chim ney, by means of a string attached to it, the whole length of the rods. After many experiments before divers persons appointed to examine its merits, this was given up as ineffectual to the purpose re quired. The only remaining apparatus was invented by Mr. George Smart, the patentee of a method of making hollow masts for ships : to him, after a long se ries of practice, in which he has been al most uniformly successful, the gold me. dal was adjudged; he has received also, we believe, some other premiums for his invention. As his method is now practis ed by several persons in and near the metropolis, we shall give a more particu. lar account of it. The principal parts of the machine are, a brush, some rods or hollow tubes, that fasten into each other by means of brass sockets, and a cord for connecting the whole together.
The method of using the machine is this : having ascertained, by looking up the chimney, what is the direction of the flue, a cloth is then to be fixed before the fire-place, with the horizontal bar, and the sides to be closed with two up right bars. The brush is introduced through the opening of the cloth, which opening is then to be buttoned, and one of the rods is to be passed up the cord into the socket on the lower end of the rod which supports the brush ; the other rods are in like manner to be brought up one by one in succession, till the brush is raised somewhat above the top of the chimney, observing to keep the cord constantly tight, and when those rods which have a screw in the socket are brought up, they are to be placed on the purchase ; the cord is to be put round the pulley, and drawn very tight, and screw ed down, by which all the rods above will be firmly connected together, and the whole may be regarded as one long flexible rod. In pulling the machine down, the edges of the brush, striking against the top of the chimney, will cause it to expand, and there being a spring to prevent its contracting again, it will bring clown the soot with it. In drawing down the machine, the person should grasp with his left hand the rod immediately above that which he is separating with his right hand, to prevent the upper ones from sliding down too soon. The rods, as they are brought down, arc to be laid carefully one by one in as small a compass as possible, and arranged like a bundle of sticks.
This machine has been found useful in extinguishing fires in chimnies : for that purpose a coarse cloth is to be tied over the brush, dipped in water, and then passed up in the manner directed. After three years experience, Mr. Smart's machine has been found, in a great mea sure, to answer the purposes for which it was intended ; in the course of several thousand trials, it is ascertained that not more than one or two chimnies, at most, in a hundred, has resisted the passage of the brush. It is, however, of importance to observe, that the invention cannot be deemed in a state of perfection; soot, from some coals adheres so strongly to the sides of the chimney, and chimney-pot, that no brush will of itself bring it down, so that after a considerable time it may be expected that means must be found to scrape off the soot, as the climbing boys now generally do : we wish, there fore, that such an addition to the appa ratus could be devised, as should remedy this defect. It is well known that one cause of the smoking of chimnies is from the circumstance, of the top of the chim ney-pot being clogged with soot that ad heres to the upper edge, which it is cer Min Mr. Smart's brush has in many instances failed to remove. He has clone much to obviate an evil long complained of: an evil that has deprived of health, d eventually of life, a multitude of per sons in their youth, that might for a long course of years have been useful to the community, and we wish to see in his hands the invention, so honourable to his talents, rendered still more useful by be ing more perfect. He has attained, with regard to making his brush ascend the chimney, all that can be expected, and instead of bringing up infants to climb the fiftieth or hundredth chimney, which on account of the direction of the flue no apparatus can be made to ascend, other means may be adopted.