Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/552

518&#93; 5 x3] CHI distant from the fender ; and in cutting away the back of the chim- ney, so as to leave a space of two inches between the back of the grate, and that of the chimney. If the grate be of the common form, the sides should be tilled up with brick-work, and taced with Dutch tiles. By this construction, the air that passes behind the back of the grate will impel the smoke with an increased velocity, and thus pre- v at it from bursting into the room. Smoky chimnies are frequently occasioned by their being so very narrow as scarcely to admit the children, usually employed for the purpose of sweeping them, to reach properly to tire top. This evil may be remedied, and that inhuman practice rendered unnecessary, by adopting the following mode, which lias been used for time immemorial in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other cities in the North ; and which ef- fectually answers the end intended. Procure a rope for the purpose, twice the length of tire height of the chimney, to the middle of which is to be tied a bush (of broom, furze, ^:c.) sufficiently large to fill the chimney. Put one end of the rope down the whole passage ; and, if there be any windings in it, a bul- let, or round stone, is to be tied to the extremity of the rope, and the wood-end of the bush introduced after the rope has descended into the chamber j where a person must pull it downward. By the elasti- city of its twigs, the bush sweeps the sides of the chimney as it de- scends, and carries the soot with it. Should it be necessary for the man at the top, who has hold of the other end of the rope, to draw the bush up again, the person below must turn the latter, so as to send liie wood-end uppermost, before CHI he gives notice to the assistant at the top to pull it upwards. Chim- nies thus cleaned, never require one-tenth part of the repairs, ren- dered necessary wh-fre. they are swept by children : for, as these are obliged to work themselves up, by pressing their knees and ieet on one side, and their backs on the other, they not unfrequefttljr force out the bricks that divide the chim- nies. This is the chief cause why, in many houses of the metropolis, a fire in one apartment always rills the adjoining ones with smoke, and sometimes even the neighbour- ing house. Whole buildings have pfteo been burnt down, from this concealed cause ; as a foul chim- ney, taking lire, communicates it by these apertures to empty apart- ments, or to such as were rilled with lumber ; and in which it was thought unnecessary to make any search, after the fire had been ex- tinguished in the chimney where it first began. We, therefore, se- riously recommend this practice ( to be universally adopted, as an object of interest, not less than on account of its humane tendency. It would, farther, be no detriment to those who procure their subsistence by the sweeping of chimnies : for, if this plan should be countenanced, they would be as necessary, then, for the. convenience, of the public as they are at present ; and those very- persons would be unavoidably in- duced to provide themselves with ropes for that purpose. Lastly, such a beneficial change might af- ford the only practicable means of rescuing many unfortunate children from their degraded situation ; pre- vent many accidents by which they become deformed 5 and obviate the evils attendant on : j - premature old age. Amonsr