Common black powder
such as old women use to blow out the copper flues.
R. Austin Freeman - As a Thief in the Night (1928)
Apparently women sometimes did this when the washday copper was
heated by a coal fire and sooty flues were a problem to be resolved without the expense of a sweep.
The intrepid ladies went out and bought little packets of
gunpowder, threw a packet into the fire under the copper, slammed the door and –
whoomph. The gunpowder blew a thick black cloud of soot out of the flue. Job
done.
Different times, different ways.
I would have thought it was a fairly safe process, with more "whoosh" than "whoomph". Just a flash of hot flame that burns up the previous residues.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgV7d9OITzk
Local boys might have had fun placing a tin tray over the top of the flue, and weighting it down with a load of bricks, though.
When I was a lad it was common to clean the chimney with a shotgun.
ReplyDeleteThis was strictly for the common people. Others had the chinese laundry to collect and return.
ReplyDeleteSam - I prefer to think of it as a flue cannon although I've heard that some people would set their chimney on fire to clear the soot.
ReplyDeleteRoger - reminds me of Laurel and Hardy in Dirty Work, although in their case it wasn't intentional.
Demetrius - but how did the Chinese laundry clear their flue?