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| Chimney Sweep circa 1850 |
One day last week I came home to find a yellow notice affixed to the window on the entry door to our apartment building. It read:
Attention! Next week on May 21 the chimney sweep will be inspecting the combustion
appliances in your building. Please make sure someone is home to receive him.
The chimney sweep???!!! What is this all about? Is Dick van Dyke going to show up with his helpers and start dancing from the rooftops like in Mary Poppins?
Later that week, we received an email from our landlord requesting one of us be at home on that day so the paper could be signed saying that the chimney sweep had, in fact, been there.
During the 19th and early 20th century, chimney sweeps were kind of an adjunct to the fire department. Whereas the fire department put fires out when they started, the chimney sweep helped keep fires from starting by cleaning soot and tar out of chimneys. Perhaps for that reason, chimney sweeps are a symbol of good luck in Germany. It was dangerous work, though, and often done by children. Back in the 1800s, chimney sweeps in Germany wore all black clothing and a top hat. But one wonders what function a chimney sweep serves today? Our apartment has no fireplace or coal stove, just an on demand gas water heater that we share with the neighbors.
Like much else in Germany, the chimney sweep is an old institution that has been repurposed in the modern era. According to the notice, the chimney sweep would be measuring the CO2 emissions and pollution generated by our combustion appliances, and adjusting the burner if they showed any sign of deviation from nominal. Today in Germany, the chimney sweeps are not only helping ensure fires don't start, but are also on the front lines of the battle against climate change and energy waste. Though I suppose if we did have a fireplace, he would have cleaned out the chimney.
Since Renate was working from home, she received the chimney sweep when he arrived on Thursday. He asked her to turn on the hot water in the kitchen, checked out the on-demand water heater while it was running, asked her to sign a paper, then left.
And, yes, he was dressed in the traditional all-black clothing, but he wasn't wearing a top hat.
Source: wikipedia.com
Well, isn't that interesting! The tradition sounds just like the British one, down to the black gear and top hat - but I don't think it has morphed into a current role. I grew up with coal fires - and chimney sweeps, though I don't have any clear memories of them. We'll need to have a sweep come in regularly now we have a wood stove, I guess. Puts me in mind of the Victorian morality tale "The Water Babies" - a child sweep drowns and turns into a water baby and etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Water-Babies,_A_Fairy_Tale_for_a_Land_Baby. I obviously didn't read the whole book - having reviewed the wikipedia article - but some retelling of it for modern children!
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