In the late 1600s England, in order to deal with the London fire that burned the city, the building code changed, requiring the chimney to be much narrower than before. Thanks to the new design, keeping the chimney unobstructed becomes more challenging and prioritized. Shockingly, no one invented the tools for this, but instead hired children as chimney sweepers. For more than 200 years, this practice has continued despite the harsh living conditions of children, severe health impacts, and the dangers of related work have caused many casualties.
Foreman takes in homeless little boys, or buys young children from orphanages, poor parents; the children are nothing more than contract servants, treated severely, and are forced to work from dawn to dusk every day of the year, except for one day.
Chimney sweeping boys are usually between 5 and 10 years old, and some are as young as 4 years old. They climbed up the chimney with a brush and scraping tool and knocked off the creosote and soot from the chimney liner. The boys also have metal scrapers and small brushes to remove hard tar deposits. After reaching the top of the mountain, the boys slid back to collect the piles of soot, and the master sold the piles of soot to farmers as fertilizer. If the boys are reluctant to climb or work too slowly, their owners sometimes raise a lit torch under their feet; this is where the phrase “make a fire under someone” comes from.
Chimney cleaners did not get any type of breathing equipment or protective clothing. They suffer from many health problems due to frequent exposure to soot and being in an unnatural position most of the time. Work-related health issues include: ankle deformation, kneecap twist, spinal distortion, inflammatory eye syndrome and respiratory diseases. The first industrial disease in history was caused by a young chimney sweeper. Chimney sweepers often suffer from chimney sweeper cancer during their adolescence, a very painful and deadly scrotum cancer.
Chimney cleaners also often suffocate in the chimney due to inhaling soot. Sometimes they are trapped in narrow chimneys and die. Many people die after falling, or die or are injured by burning .
The living conditions of chimney cleaners did not comfort them. They usually don’t have enough food, sleep in the basement, covering themselves with dirty soot pipes they use when they work. The boys rarely take baths and often get sick.
