The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-12-15
CHIMNEYS-THEIR HISTORY.

Chimneys seem so natural to us that
we forget that there was time when
they were unknown. They were invent
ed about the same time with clocks and
watches. No house in ancient Rome
or Athens had them. The Greeks and
Romans heated their rooms with hot
Goals in DISH or by flues underneath
the floor. The smoke passed out by
the doors and windows. You could al
ways tell when II Roman was about to
give a dinner-party by the clouds of
smoke that came. out of the kitchen
windows. 1t must have been very I'M
pleasant for the cooks, who had to do
their work in the midst of it.
The tall chimneys that rise over the
tops of the houses in New York and
Brooklyn, pouring out their clouds of
smoke, would have seemed miracles to
our ancestors few centuries ago. Even
the pipe of Il steamer or the chimney of
a Kerosene lamp they would have
thought wonderful. In England, in the
time of the Conqueror 1066), the fire
was built ON Il clay floor or in a hole or
pit in the largest room of the house.
The smoke passed through an opening
in the roof. AT night cover was placed
over the Goals. Everybody was by law
obliged to cover up his fire when the
bell rang at a certain hour In French
this was coBCreteu, and hence the word
''curfew' bell.
Chimneys began to be used generally
in England in the beginning of the
reign of Elizabeth No one knows who
invented them, or when they first came
into use. We find them first in Italy.
In Venice they seem to have been not
uncommon as early as 1347. In 1868
they had long been in use at Padua.
They were at first built very wide and
large, so that they could be easily
cleaned. The wide chimney pieces of
some of our older houses are very curl
Gus.
But rs time passed on chimneys were
made taller, narrow, and often
crooked When they had to be cleaned
it was customary to send boys up into
them to remove the SCOT and ashes. 1t
was then that the saddest stories were
told of the little sweeps who were
forced to CLIMB up the narrow fues,
and come down torn, bleeding. and
covered with SCOT. These poor Great
ures, who were often not more than
ScNCn VI Cl1Hi NcutS OlNl. were
times sufliocated in the foul chimneys
they attempted to clean. When they
reached the top they werd expected to
look out and give shout. No boy
would ever become chimney-sweep
from choice, and they were often driven
to climb the chimneys by the fear of a
whipping. The cruelty of the MASTER
sweeps was fearful. .u
The little chimney-sweeper has
passed away. His place is taken: by Q
| patent broom and Il colored operator.
| Chimneys are built two and three hun
dred feet high. In Birmingham, Eng,
one fell down recently on large fac
tory, killing and wounding thirty OF
forty workmen and others. The tallest
chimney in New York is that of tn,
Steam-heating Company.
The chimney is one of the most rpsefu
of inventions. We can not well under
stand how the Greeks and Romans die
without it. But with us it is everywhere
Our lamps would never burn without ;
chimney; our steamboats, and engine,
would be helpless without it; our facto
ries are moyed by it; it warns ouI
houses, and gives employment t.
thousands of people.
In the days before chimneys were in
vented men lived in clouds of smoke
The walls of the finest palaces in an
cient Rome were soon covered with 500
and filth. 1t was impossible to keel
them clean. The mosaics and the paint
4 ings ON the walls soon become dscol
ored. In the castles of England an'
France il was still worse. Here tn
2 fro in, ha Of
great hall. The smoke covered the roo
with black drapery, and the savag
knights and squireS were for ed eithe
10 endure the cold or to live and breath
in an air that was dangerous to sight
health and life itself. --Harper'S Youn
People.