The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-12-22
CHIMNEYS.

Chimneys seem so natural to US that
we forget that there was a 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 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 a few centuries ago. Even
the pipe of a steamer or the chimney of
Il kerosene lamp they would have
thought wonderful. In England, in the
time of the Conqueror (1066), the fire
was built on a 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 a cover was placed
over the Goals. Everybody was by law
obliged to cover up his fire when the
bell rang at certain hour. In Fren ch
this was cOWUreteu, 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 chimnet-pieces of
some of our older houses are very curl
Gus.
But as time passed on chimneys were
made taller, narrow, and often
crooked. When they had to be cleaned
1t 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 climo up the narrow fues,
and come down torn, bleeding, and
covered with SCOT. These poor Great
ures, who were often not more than
seven or eight years old, were some
times suffocated in the foul chimneys
they attempted to clean. When they
reached the top they were expected to
look out and give a shout. No boy
would ever become chimney-sweep
from choice, and they were often driven
to climb the chimneys by the fear of
whipping. The cruelty of the master
sweeps was fearful
The little chimney-sweeper has
passed away. His place is taken, by a
patent broom and colored operator.
Chimneys are built two and three hun
dred feet high, In Birmingham, Eng,
one fell down recently on a large fac
tory, killing and wounding thirty or
forty workmen and others. The tallest
chimney in New York is that of the
Steam-heating Company.
The chimneyis one of the most useful
of inventions. We can not well under
stand how the Greeks and Romans did
without it. But with us it is everywhere.
Our lamps would never burn without
chimney; our steamboats, and engines
would be helpless without it; our facto-
ries are moved by it; it warns our
houses, and gives employment to
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
Gent Rome were soon covered with SCOT
and filth. 1t was impossible to keep
them clean. The mosaics and the paint
ings on the walls soon become discol-
ored. In the castles of England and
France it was still worse. Here the
huge fire blazed in the center of the
great hall. The smoke covered the roof
with black drapery, and the savage
knights and squires were forced either
to endure the cold, or to live and breathe
in an air that was dangerous to sight,
health and life itself. -Harper'S Young
People. res Brf fFiyf
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