IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH APPARATUS FOR SWEEPING AND CLEANING CHIMNEYS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Trench at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 9th October 1877.
_JOHN TRENCH, of Paisley, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain, Engineer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH APPARATUS FOR SWEEPING AND CLEANING
CHIMNEYS."
This Invention has for its object to effect the cleaning of chimneys or other
similar flues in a simple, economical, and expeditious manner by means of apparatus
which can be actuated from the interior of dwelling houses or other buildings, thus
avoiding the risk of life and damage to property attending the operation as at
present carried on from the chimney tops.
In carrying out the Invention, according to one modification, a small pulley
supported in bearings in a narrow iron bar or bracket, is securely mounted across
the can or cowl at the top of the chimney flue, and over this pulley, which is fitted
in a slot in an enlargement at the centre of the bracket, there is passed a rope
reaching down from both sides of the pulley to the fire-place below. To one end
of this rope is attached a brush which may be made of whalebone or other similar
substance in the usual way, but which it is preferred to construct in a novel and
inexpensive manner of hair, bristles, cotton waste, or other fibrous material. This
brush, the size and shape of which may be varied to suit the particular section of
flue to be cleaned, is made by entwining the hair or fibrous material in strands of
wire, or on a cane, forming a slightly elastic hoop or ring, and having a wire or rod
across it for the attachment of the rope, and, if necessary, of a weight.
When the brush is drawn up and down to clean the flue, the end of the rope
which is being pulled passes through the centre of the brush and tends to press
it equally against both sides of the flue on the occurrence of a bend in the chimney.
After the operation is completed, a light chain is attached to the end of the rope,
which is then drawn over the pulley down to the fire-place, and together with the
brush removed, the chain being left suspended from the pulley ready for the attach-
ment of the rope when it is again desired to use the cleaning apparatus.
A weight may be attached to one end of the chain, and when the other has been
drawn by the rope over the pulley down to the fire-place, it may be attached to a

page_text: hook provided for it in the wall, the length of chain being regulated so as to leave
the weight suspended at or near the top of the flue.
In some cases, where no serious damage would result to the chimney flues,
the rope inay be dispensed with, and the brush may be fixed round an endless
chain reaching from the fire-place up to and over the pulley at the top of the
chimney.
By another modification, the bracket at the top of the chimney is made to extend
across two or more cans, a pulley being fitted over the centre of each; and instead of
a separate rope and chain being used for every flue, one chain may pass over two
pulleys down to separate fire-places, in which case the operation of cleaning one
flue is effected by drawing the chain and rope at the fire-place of the adjoining flue,
and vice versa.