George Brewster, a 12-year-old chimney sweep, became the last climbing boy in England to die on the job. Earlier, in the late 1700s, William Blake wrote poetic depictions of the lives of climbing boys which were published in two books of poetry, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Several works of literature helped to bring a spotlight to their terrible plight, including “The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby,” written by Reverend Charles Kingsley and published in full in 1863. Most were unsympathetic to the plight of the young chimney sweeps, but not everyone. The boys rarely bathed and were frequently sickly. They were usually barely fed and slept in basements, covering themselves with the filthy soot sacks they worked with. The living conditions of the chimney sweeps offered them no relief. Many also died after falling or were killed or injured from burns. Sometimes they got stuck and died in the narrow chimneys. The chimney sweeps also frequently suffocated inside the chimneys from breathing the soot. Chimney sweeps in their adolescence often suffered and died from Chimney Sweep Cancer, a horribly painful and fatal cancer of the scrotum. The first industrial disease in history was suffered by young chimney sweeps. Work-related health problems included: deformed ankles, twisted kneecaps, twisted spines, inflammatory eye syndrome, and respiratory illnesses. They suffered many health problems because of their constant exposure to soot and because of the unnatural positions they were in so much of the time. The chimney sweeps were not given any type of respiratory equipment or protective clothing. If the boys were reluctant to climb or were too slow at their work, their masters would sometimes hold a lighted torch under their feet this is where the phrase “light a fire under someone” originated. After reaching the top, the boys slid back down and collected the soot pile, which the master sold to farmers as fertilizer. The boys also had metal scrapers and small brushes to remove hard tar deposits. They clambered up chimneys with brushing and scraping tools that knocked the creosote and soot from the chimney lining. The small boys used as chimney sweeps were typically between 5 and 10 years of age, and some were as young as 4 years old. Instead, they were nothing less than indentured servants, harshly treated and forced to work from dawn until dusk every day of the year but one. Master Sweeps took in homeless young boys or bought young children from orphanages or from destitute parents and the children were supposedly chimney sweep apprentices. For over 200 years, this practice went on, in spite of the deplorable conditions the children lived in, the horrible health effects they suffered, and the many injuries and fatalities resulting from related work hazards. Shockingly, instead of someone inventing a tool for this purpose, children were employed as human chimney sweeps. Due to the new design, keeping the chimneys free of obstruction became more of a challenge and a priority. In the late 1600s in England in response to the Great Fire of London, which gutted the city, building codes changed, requiring chimneys to be much narrower than previously. Child Chimney Sweeps: Dark Chapter in Sweep History
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