Regency Household: Clean Your Chimney (Without Children)

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70 Method of Sweeping Chimnies without employing Children and the danger attending the old method pointed out Procure a rope for the purpose twice the length of the height of the chimney to the middle of it tie a bush broom furze or any other of sufficient size to fill the chimney if there be any windings in it tie a bullet or round stone to the end of the rope and introduce the wood end of the bush after the rope has descended into the room then let a person pull it down The bush by the elasticity of its twigs brushes the sides of the chimney as it descends and carries the soot with it If necessary the person at top who has hold of the other end of the rope draws the bush up again but in this case the person below must turn the bush to send the wood end foremost before he calls to the person at top to pull it up Many people who are silent to the calls of humanity are yet attentive to the voice of interest chimnies cleansed in this way never need a tenth part of the repairs required when they are swept by children who being obliged to work themselves up by pressing with their feet and knees on one side and the back on the other often force out the bricks which divide the chimnies This is one of the causes why in many houses a fire in one apartment always fills the adjoining one with smoke and sometimes even the adjoining house Nay some houses have even been burnt by these means for a foul chimney taking fire has been frequently known to communicate by these apertures to empty apartments filled with timber where of course it was not thought necessary to make any examination after extinguishing the fire in the chimney where it began

This cleaning method appeared in The Family Receipt Book (1819).

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