Chimney Origins and History
Comfortable interior spaces were sought for as the standard of living in medieval Britain rose. Smoke from a central fire naturally found its way out of old houses through vents in the ceiling and walls. Extreme pain was experienced, and clean places to sleep or rest were in short supply due to the widespread presence of black soot. This issue was resolved with the installation of a chimney. The idea behind its creation was to corral the smoke into a contained area from which it could be directed to safety. The design of the chimney flue eventually became widespread.
In order to let the smoke out of castles, they would have to hack at the massive stone walls. The flues of this kind angled 45 degrees rearward and upward. Chirk Castle, in Wales, was one of the earliest to incorporate vertical chimneys into its battlements in the thirteenth century. Due to the back pressure of the winds, these vertical flues were installed so that smoke would not be forced back down the chimney. Most of the first chimneys were only a single storey tall and featured single flue designs on the ground floor.
Stone-collecting canopies were installed over fireplaces. This was the case, for instance, at the Abbott’s Kitchen at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. The flues from the four corner fireplaces ascended the walls and converged in an octagonal lantern-shaped chimney that reached all the way to the top.
Early chimney pots looked somewhat like this. By decreasing the outlet’s cross sectional area, chimney pots speed up the smoke’s ascension. They encourage up draft while simultaneously minimizing down draft by decreasing the area influenced upon by the wind. A fresh idea that, to my knowledge, sees only seldom use in the States.
Chimney sweeping as a profession was initially motivated by a need in society. If you’re already a sweep, you might be familiar with some of this background info. But I thought it would be interesting to share it with anyone who’s curious in the origins of the profession.
When a fire is started, the smoke rises through the chimney and out the vent. However, as a fire dies out, the chimney cools and chilly air rushes in. Soot is formed when smoke vapors cool and solidify. There were several Chimney Cleaning Avery methods in use before coal became widely used. Different types of chimneys produced different amounts of soot when burnt different types of fuel.
To remove soot from a wide, short, and straight chimney, one need just stand on the hearth and use a long-handled broom. The broom included leather straps holding together birch twigs. An simple job for a housekeeper was inserting this brush up the chimney.
A flexible pole with a bundle of rushes at the end was used to drive smoke up and out of longer flues. Traditionally, tall, narrow chimneys were cleaned by securing a bundle of straw to a piece of driftwood within the flue and then hoisting or lowering the entire assembly with a rope. A small holly shrub or fir tree might work with the same top-to-bottom method, depending on the width of the flue. To remove clumps of tar, some people even resorted to using long poles.
Ducks and geese were used in a different strategy. Indeed, we have progressed tremendously. A rope would be attached to the bird’s neck and used to lower it down the chimney before being used to haul it back up. The strong wings would battle the chimney’s walls, scraping the soot away. Someone once quipped, “The blacker the bird, the cleaner the chimney!” None of our CCPs employ this approach at the moment. Ahem.
Even chimney walls had to be scrubbed back then. This was due to the fact that the green wood they burnt included water, which, when combined with the soot, would result in a tar-like substance. Chimneys made of stone were intentionally set on fire in areas where people lived to get rid of the ash. To achieve this, they’d fill the fireplace with straw and light it with a shotgun; at the time, chimneys were built to accommodate this practice.
But today, safe and professional chimney cleaning and repairing is made possible by reliable accredited companies like Local Chimney Sweep Cleaning. Call us today.