Q16 Report of Society for improving Chimney-fiveeping, [O&. 1, 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
EXTRaCT from the sECOND REPORT of 
_ the COMMITTEE appointed by the so- 
CLETY for fuperfeding the neceffity of 
_ CLIMBING BOYS, by encouraging a 
mew METHOD of /iveeping CHIMNIES; 
and for improving the CONDITION of 
CHILDREN aud others employed by 
CHIMNEY-SWEEPERS. ie 
Read at the Annual General Meeting of the 
Society held at the London Coffee-Houfe, 
May't, 1804. ‘ 
HOUGH the difficulties which have 
prefented ‘themielves to your Com- 
mittee in profecuting the objects of this 
Society, and the prejudices which they 
have had to encounter, have been of a na- 
ture to have jultified a more unfavourable 
Report than that now about to be fubmit- 
ted to your confideration, yet as the extent 
of thofe difficulties, and the inveteracy of 
thofe prejudices, muft neceffarily have 
been but littie known to the public in ge- 
nera!, your Committee have thought pro- 
per to fet out by premifing thefe circum- 
itances, with a view to relieve the difap- 
pointment which fome of the benevolent 
fub(cribers to this inftitucion may experi- 
ence, inthe too fanguine expectations they 
had been induced to form of fudden and 
com»lete fuccefs. Your Committee, not- 
withftanding, claim fome merit for the 
progrefs that has been made by them; and 
which, perhaps, owing to the delay that 
has cccurred, and the confequent acquifi- 
tion of knowledze and experience in the 
objects of their refearch, is the be}ter cal- 
culated to induce a well-grounded hope of 
ultimate fuccefs. 
Your Committee having given due 
publicity to the premiums recommended to 
you by this Committee in their former Re- 
port, and adopted at the lait general meet- 
ing, for encouraging the invention of fuch 
machines as might be practically and con- 
vehiently ufed tor the purpote of {weeping 
chimnies, received, from teveral ingenious 
mechanics arfd others, a variety of plans, 
models, and machines widely difiering 
from each other as well in the principles 
upon which they were defigned to act, as 
in the materials of which they were meant 
to be compofed. ; 
Unremitting artention was befiowed 
upon thefe plans by your Committee, and 
by. a fub-committee of its members, who, 
to fimplify the iabour of inveftigation, di- 
vided the machines into the three follow- 
ing diftin& claffes. 
1ft, Such machines as were propofed to 
be let down from the top of the chimney 
in the manner practifed in the north of 
England. As this method appeared to be 
objectionable from the damage it might oc- 
cafion to the roofs of houfes, and the dirt 
and other inconveniencies that would ar- 
tend the adoption of it, thefe machines 
were for the prefent laid afide, though 
from the cheapnefs and fimplicity of their, 
contrivance, it was intended occafionally 
to recur to them in fuch cafes as would 
admit of no other effectual remedy. . 
2d. Your Committee fufpended any im- 
mediate determination on fuch plans as re- 
quired fome apparatus or fixture on thé 
chimney-pot, or in any part of the flue, 
on account of the expence that would at: 
tend them, and of the liability that they 
would be under of being out of order in 
the fprings, chains, or puilies, by means 
of which they were propofed to act. 
3d. The machines that principally and 
immediately occupied the attention of your 
Committee were fuch as admitted of being 
worked wholly from the bettom, aad could’ 
act independent of any fuch foreign or ex- 
traneous affiltance. ‘. 
This laft clafs confited of feveral mo- 
dels, fiom a number of which your Com- 
mittee felected fuch as appeared to them 
beft calculated to anfwer the propofed end. 
In thefe, though much mechanical {kill 
was exerted in the detail, yet the principle 
was nearly the fame in all. They chiefly 
confifted of rods of equal! Ikngths faflened 
together, as they were fuccefiively fent up 
the chimney, in the manner of the bayonet, 
or with [crews, {pring fockets, pins, and 
other contrivances. The rods were chief- 
ly compofed of cane, whalebone, iron, ard 
different f{pecies of wood, both ftiff and 
ficxible. One machine however differed 
from the reft, as it confiftted of hollow 
tubes of wood through which a cord was 
pafled, which admiited of being tightened 
or flackened as the curvature of the flue 
might require. The brafhes and fcrapers 
accompanying all thele machines appeared 
to be perfeétly adapted to the purpofe, and 
{carcely to admit of imprevement. ' 
- Under the direS&tion, and in the prefence 
of your Committee, experiments with 
‘thefe feveral machines were made by their 
re{peétive inventors at the York Hofpiral, 
Weftminfter, and at the houfe belonging 
to the Jesnerian Inftitution in Sal:fbury- 
{quare, Fleet-ftreet ; a want of practical 
knowledge of the conitruétion of chimnies, 
and the rifk and numerous difadvantages 
which mut always attend the firft attempts 
to reduce theory to practice, rendered thefe 
experiments leis fatisfactory than might 
otherwife have been expected from the in- 
genuity of the contrivances, and the per= 
2 fevering 
