CHIMNEY SWEEPING. 
tliP soot. The evils of this disagreeable 
and unwholesome occupation to those en- 
gaged in it, are generally acknowledged, 
and of late years the public attention has 
been directed to this subject, and pre- 
miums 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 associated for 
this purpose, and offered considerable pre- 
miums to those who might invent and bring 
into practice, a method of cleansing chim- 
hies, by mechanical means, that should su- 
persede the necessity of climbing boys. 
Feeling tliemselves, perhaps, inadequate to 
the task of carrying their laudable inten- 
tions into full execution, they applied to the 
“ Society for the Encouragement of Arts, 
Manufactures,” &c. in the Adelphi, re- 
questing them to engage in it, and to offer 
premiums on the subject. In consequence 
of this application, the society offered their 
gold medal to the person who should in- 
vent Ihe most effectual mechanical or other 
means for - cleansing chimnies from soot, 
and obviating the necessity of children 
being employed within the flues. In a 
few months there were five candidates for 
this premium, whose several inventions were 
put to the test of experiment upon chini- 
nies not less than 70 feet high. One of the 
inventions consisted of a set of brushes with 
pullies and weights, which were to be let 
down from the top of the chimney ; but as 
the object was to find an apparatus to ef- 
fect the purpose from the iaside of the 
house, this was deemed unfit to accomplish 
the views of the society. Another gentle- 
man proposed the plan of throwing gravel 
up the chimney by means of condensed 
air ; the machine was tried, and deemed 
wholly inadequate to the pifrpose. 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 answ'er 
only in short and straight chimnies. The 
next consisted of laths several feet long, 
which locked into one another, and on the 
upper one was fixed an elastic expanding 
brush, which, in its ascending and con- 
tracted state, occupied a space of only six 
or eight inches, but which was to be open- 
ed, when forced to the top of the chimney, 
by means of a string attached to it the 
whole length of the rods. After many ex- 
periments before divers persons appointed 
to examine its merits, this was given up as 
ineffectual to the purpose required. The 
only remaining apparatus was invented by 
Mr. George Smart, the patentee of a me- 
thod of making hollow masts for ships : to 
him, after a long series of practice, in 
which he has been almost uniformly suc- 
cessful, the gold medal was adjudged ; he 
has received also, we believe, some other 
premiums for his invention. As liLs method 
is now practised by several persons in and 
near the metropolis, we shall give a more 
particular account of it. The principal parts 
of the machine are a brush, some rods or 
hollow tubes, tliat fasten into each other, by 
means of brass sockets, and a cord for con- 
necting the whole together. 
The method of using the machine is this : 
having ascertained, by looking up the chim- 
ney, what is the direction of the ffue, a 
cloth is then to be fixed before the fire- 
place, with the horizontal bar, and the sides 
to be closed with two upright bars. Tlie 
brush is introduced through tiie opening of 
the cloth, which opening is then to be but- 
toned, 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, til! 
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 tlie 
pulley and drawn very tight, and screwed 
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 down the soot with it. 
Ill drawing down the machine, the person 
shouid grasp with his left hand the rod im- 
mediately 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, are to be 
laid carefully one by one m as small a com- 
pass as possible, and arranged like a bundle 
of sticks. 
Tbis machine has been found useful in ex- 
tinguishing fires in chimnies ; for that pur- 
pose a coarse cloth is to be tied over the 
brush, dipped in water, and then passed up 
in the maimer directed. After throe years 
experience, Mr. Smart’s machine has been 
found, in a great measure, to answer the 
