From Climbing Boys to Cameras: A History of Chimney Sweeping Tools
For most of its history, the main tool of chimney sweeping was a child. This is how brushes, rods and eventually cameras replaced them.
Before tools: the climbing boys
In eighteenth-century Britain, coal fires and narrow, winding flues created a job that an adult could not physically do. Master sweeps took on boys as apprentices, some as young as four or five, and sent them up inside the flues to scrape and brush the soot loose by hand.
The work was dangerous. Boys became stuck, suffocated, fell, and were burned. In 1775 the surgeon Percivall Pott linked a cancer common among sweeps to their exposure to soot, which is regarded as the first identification of an occupational cancer.
The laws that tried, and failed, to stop it
Britain passed five laws between 1788 and 1875 to restrict the use of climbing boys. Only the last one, in 1875, was effectively enforced.
| Year | What the law said |
|---|---|
| 1788 | Set a minimum age of 8 for boys climbing chimneys |
| 1834 | Raised the minimum age to 10 |
| 1840 | Allowed apprentices from 16, and barred anyone under 21 from climbing chimneys |
| 1864 | Barred anyone under 16 from being present while chimneys were swept |
| 1875 | Required every chimney sweep to hold a certificate from the local chief of police, which finally made the earlier laws enforceable |
The earlier Acts were widely ignored. The 1875 Act, promoted by Lord Shaftesbury, followed the death of eleven-year-old George Brewster, who became stuck in a flue at Fulbourn Hospital near Cambridge.
1803: George Smart and the scandiscope
The alternative to a climbing boy had existed for decades by then. In 1803 George Smart, a British inventor, built a device he called the scandiscope: a brush on a series of hollow tubes with a cord running through them, pushed up the flue from the fireplace. The Royal Society of Arts awarded him its gold medal for it in 1805.
It worked on all but the most crooked flues. According to the Royal Society of Arts’ account, many master sweeps resisted it, and some deliberately misused the machine to turn customers against it, because boys were cheaper.
1828: Joseph Glass and the cane rod
Joseph Glass, an inventor and campaigner against the use of climbing boys, improved Smart’s design in 1828. He replaced the tubes with solid cane rods connected by brass screw joints. The result was flexible enough to follow bends in a flue and strong enough to push a stiff brush through them.
That is essentially the tool sweeps still use. Rods are now fiberglass or polypropylene and brushes are wire or synthetic, but a sweep from the 1830s would recognize the kit.
The twentieth century: vacuums and standards
Two things changed the trade in the last century. Powerful vacuums made it possible to sweep a chimney without filling the house with soot. And written standards replaced habit: in the United States, NFPA 211 set out how chimneys should be built, inspected and maintained.
Today: rotary cleaning and video inspection
The newest tools address the two limits of a brush on a rod. Rotary systems spin flexible heads with a drill to remove hard, glazed creosote that a brush slides over. Video cameras on rods let a sweep see the whole inside of a flue, joint by joint, which NFPA 211 now expects for a Level 2 chimney inspection.
The purpose has not changed since Smart’s time: get the soot out, and find the problems, without anyone having to climb inside.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Chimney Sweepers Act 1875 and Chimney sweep.
- Wikipedia, George Smart (inventor) and Joseph Glass (inventor).
- Royal Society of Arts, RSA history: premiums for chimney brushes.
- Historic UK, Chimney Sweeps and Climbing Boys.
Common questions
Who invented the chimney sweep's brush and rods?
George Smart built the first practical mechanical sweeper, the scandiscope, in 1803. Joseph Glass improved it in 1828 with cane rods joined by brass screw fittings, the design modern sweeping rods are based on. Modern rods are fiberglass or polypropylene and the brushes are wire or synthetic, but the principle is the same.
When did the use of child chimney sweeps end?
In Britain, the Chimney Sweepers Act of 1875 effectively ended it by requiring sweeps to be licensed by the police. Earlier laws in 1788, 1834, 1840 and 1864 had set age limits but were not enforced. The 1875 Act followed the death of an eleven-year-old boy, George Brewster, in a flue near Cambridge.
Why were children used to sweep chimneys?
Flues in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century buildings were narrow and winding, too small for an adult. Small children could climb inside them, and master sweeps found boys cheaper than machines. George Smart's mechanical sweeper of 1803 showed the work could be done without them, decades before the practice ended.
What was the scandiscope?
The scandiscope was the first practical mechanical chimney sweeper, built by George Smart in 1803. It was a brush on a series of hollow tubes with a cord through them, pushed up the flue from the fireplace. The Royal Society of Arts gave Smart its gold medal for it in 1805.
Who first linked soot to cancer in chimney sweeps?
The English surgeon Percivall Pott did, in 1775. He observed that a particular cancer was common among chimney sweeps and attributed it to their exposure to soot. It is regarded as the first time a cancer was traced to an occupation.