AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR, AND METHOD OF, CLEANSING AND SWEEPING CHIMNIES, AND EXTINGUISHING THEM WHEN ON FIRE, WHICH WILL SUPERSEDE THE NECESSITY OF THEIR BEING EXPLORED BY CHILDREN, AS NOW PRACTISED
Year: 1803

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DANIEL
PAULIN DAVIS, of Bloomsbury Square, in the Parish of Saint George,
Bloomsbury, and County of Middlesex, Surveyor, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eleventh day of April, in
the forty-third year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Daniel Paulin
Davis, His especial licence that I, the said Daniel Paulin Davis, during the
term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR, AND METHOD OF, CLEANSING
AND SWEEPING CHIMNIES, AND EXTINGUISHING THEM WHEN ON FIRE, WHICH WILL
SUPERSEDE THE NECESSITY OF THEIR BEING EXPLORED BY CHILDREN, AS NOW
PRACTISED;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said Daniel Paulin Davis, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after the date"
of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being
thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in complince with the said proviso, I, the said
David Paulin Davis, do hereby declare my said Invention of machines or
apparatus for cleansing chimnies, and extinguishing them when on fire,

page_text: hoping thereby to supersede the necessity of that business being performed by
children, as is at present generally practised. The particulars and explanation
to the respective parts collectively, as well as individually, of each and every
part of the said machine or machines, or apparatus, are as follows:-
A swinging or fixed bar or roller, as the case may require, is to be fixed at
the top or thereabouts of the funnel or flue of the chimney, in an horizontal
direction from side to side, over which a chain or rope, formed of metal or
other materials proper for the purpose, is to be suspended, and sufficiently long
to reach below the mouth or mouths of each chimney, where an expanding or
flexible brush or brushes, composed of hair, cain, willow, birch, or other proper
materials, is to be hooked or otherwise fastened to the said chain, wire, or
rope, as occasion may require or when wanting for use, and taking off when
the flue or chimney is sufficiently swept or cleansed. And in order to do that
the more effectually, a roller or bar is to be fixed from the inside the breast to
the back, at a sufficient distance from the jamb on each side the mouth or
throat of the chimney, a few inches above the chimney bar or mantle, over
which the chain, wire, or rope, with the brush or brushes suspended thereto,
may pass, going up on the one side and down on the other, by which means
the gathering or projecting wings of the flues will not escape being swept, as
well in the channel of the flues as the mouth or throat of the same, some of
which run in a zigzag or crooked direction, so as to leave the points of the
gathering wings with a sharp edge; and therefore, to prevent the brush or
brushes, chain, wire, or rope, from meeting with any effective impediment in
it's passage from the mouth or throat of the chimney to the top of the channel
of the said flues in passing up or down, some small balls of cork will be
hung on various parts of of the said chain, wire, or rope, to become moveable
whenever it meets with the smallest interruption in its passage as before
described. And to prevent the necessity of any person or persons going within-
side the mouth of the chimney, for the purpose of drawing up or down the
brush or brushes before named, as well as to keep the soot withinside when
falling by being so disturbed, I have formed an apron or cloth to be hung
against the opening of the chimney, with two armholes therein, through which
the hands or the arms of the person so employed are to be placed, by which
the brush and chain, wire or rope, can be drawn up and down without being
exposed to the soot when falling, or receiving it into the room or rooms. And
after the business is so performed, either the same chain, wire, or cord, may be
left in the chimney across the bar, or some other harsted by the end thereof into
it's place, and the ends thereof fastened within reach of the hand. And in case
a flue or chimney should be on fire wherein the aforesaid machine or aparatus
-

page_text: is contained, I have formed a bag or parcel of wadding, which, by being
wetted and hung on the chain or rope, in lieu of the brush, to be drawn up
and down the flue or channel, in the same way as is recommended for
cleansing the same. The brush or broom above alluded to may be made
in a variety of forms suitable to the size, shape, or direction of the flues
intended to be therewith cleansed. That best calculated for general use is
made of balls of wood, or other materials, closely connected to each other by
links yielding to every direction, and adapted to receive and securely hold stiff
horsehair, bristles, slender twigs of willow, cane, or strips of whalebone, which
brush or broom may easily be drawn over the aforesaid roller, and is indispensibly
necessary for cleansing the tops of hovelled and hooded chimnies. In other
cases, where it is not requisite to carry it over such roller, another kind of
brush or broom, of like materials, may be used, made of four or more moveable
sides, supported by and moving upon transverse props, which sides may be
drawn together at either end by means of lines fixed at the top and bottom of
cach moveable side, and passing through a ring at each end of the bar whereon
the props are fastened. The sides should be about the same length as the
stem or bar to which the drops are fixed, and the props may be set either at
the centre of the stem or nearer to one end, according to the expansion
required. I propose also that the props themselves be made to slide across the
bar, similar to the slide of a gauge, and to be fastened in any position by a
setting screw pressing against their side; and the length of the whole is to be
governed by the dimensions of the flue or chimney intended to be swept.
In witness whereof, I, the said Daniel Paulin Davis, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and three.