History Of Chimney Sweeps

 In Britain, the first chimneys were built around the thirteenth century-the influence of the French conquerors spread the practice through the country quite fast. These early chimneys were much wider than their modern counterparts, so drawing them was generally a nicely easy task kept to the homeowners themselves. As the cities grew, so did a chimney sweeping industry to suit the new leisured classes, who did not appreciate getting soot on their precious coats.

The great fire of London in 1666 changed everything. With a third of the city razed, the engineers set out to rebuild everything according to the new style. These new houses had chimneys erected with far lower confines, so the old practice of sweeping came much harder. With grown-ups no longer suitable to fit outside, the job snappily fell to children to climb inside the chimneys. They were generally orphans, who were bought from the original church orphanages. Paradoxically the money from these deals generally kept the orphanages running, in a weird case of interdependence.

It did not take long for the public to protest up a fuss about the Chimney sweep association UK industry introducing orphans, some as youthful as six, to this largely dangerous work. Beforehand the Society of Master Sweeps had success in allowing climbing boys to have Sundays out, still, by the end of the 18th century, the public eventually turned to the courts. In 1788, 1792, and 1795 there were major attempts to pass laws regulating the living conditions of youthful chimney reaches.

William Blake, when he wrote his Songs of Innocence & Experience, made sure to write two different poems about the climbing boys' plight. During this time Jonas Hanway memorably compared the climbing boys' situation as being similar to the slave trade, which the government was in the process of outlawing.

At the same time, the artificial revolution brought with it indeed more demand for chimney sweeping, and the entrepreneurs of the time were beginning to concoct ways to sweep chimneys without using climbing boys. 1803 brought the first mechanized chimney sweeping device, but it was in 1829, when John Glass constructed the Advanced Broad Machine, that the modern tools of moment's chimney reaches began to come about. Still, nothing was cheaper than taking children from the orphanages so the practice of climbing boys continued.

By the mid of 19th century, the issue of climbing boys had come indeed further to the fore and in 1840 the first law explicitly banning all chimney sweeps under the age of 21 was introduced. Chimney sweep UK boys are perhaps the most notorious image of Puritanical London, but ironically by the time Queen Victoria had taken the throne in 1837 they were only three times from being permanently outlawed. In 1864 the regulations tensed indeed further on climbing boys and massive forfeitures were levied on any business hiring anyone under 21, therefore the period of sooty kiddies sweeping chimneys was over.

After the 20th century rolled around and coal became less used, chimney sweeping stopped being such a ubiquitous part of civic life. Still, the industry still thunderclaps to this day as leaving chimneys unswept can pose major health and fire hazards. Moment, chimneys are swept ever using the descendants of Glass's Broad Machine, and conditions are still regulated by the Council of Master Chimney Sweeps.

Original Source: Chimney sweep organisation UK