How many chimney sweepers died

Medical opinion had decided that his apprentice had died of suffocation and not through any wounds or bruising found on his body. There have been a number of examples in the USA in the past 50 years. Building contractors made the discovery when they began to pull apart the building. Another tragedy was Californian doctor Jacquelyn Kotarac, aged 49, whose body was found two feet above the top of a fireplace opening. The boyfriend had left the home to avoid an argument.

Her remains were later discovered by a house sitter. A pest control company discovered the remains, which were believed to have been in the chimney for a number of weeks. Other May 5, Lawson Wight. Only young children could fit through the narrow spaces on the inside of the chimneys. The ideal age for a chimney sweep to begin working was said to be 6 years old, but sometimes they were used beginning at age 4.

The child would shimmy up the flue using his back, elbows, and knees. He would use a brush overhead to knock soot loose; the soot would fall down over him. Once the child reached the top, he would slide down and collect the soot pile for his master, who would sell it.

The children received no wages. The health effects of doing this work were devastating. The children often became stunted in their growth and disfigured because of the unnatural position they were frequently in before their bones had fully developed. Their knees and ankle joints were affected most often. The first recorded form of industrial cancer was unique to chimney sweeps. The boys would often develop Chimney Sweep Cancer, which was cancer of the scrotum which usually struck the boys in their adolescence.

It was a painful and fatal cancer. In addition to these health hazards, the boys would sometimes get stuck and die in chimneys for various reasons. The poor conditions these young sweeps worked in caused health problems and many times an early death. The boys usually slept in a cellar among the black sacks used to collect soot. Some say they bathed about once a week, and other sources say they only bathed about three times a year.

Because of the invasive nature of the condition, few people who contracted it lived past middle age. And those who didn't often developed lung cancer later on. Even in its heyday, the practice of using child chimney sweeps was met with criticism. In , a bill calling for regulation was passed, but rarely enforced. Various other attempts to curtail child labor followed, but all were largely unsuccessful until the Chimney Sweepers Act of Said law prohibited "masters" from taking on any boys under the age of Finally, the Chimney Sweepers and Chimneys Regulation Act of made it outright illegal for anyone under 21 to work as a sweep, but even this law was still widely disregarded.

Business continued more or less as usual until , when a year-old sweep, George Brewster, got stuck in a chimney and died. His boss was found guilty of manslaughter, and widespread publicity incited a fervent campaign for strict regulations.

Sweeps were finally protected under a bill that was aggressively enforced — though it was too late for the countless young laborers who had come before. The horrors of child labor were, of course, legion; and the repercussions were dire for these small workers: they often suffered stunted growth, damaged joints, and even "Chimney Sweep's Cancer," which claimed countless lives In other words, children chimney sweeps in Victorian England may seem whimsical, even today; but in reality, they represent a particularly dark chapter in the UK's past.

Working Conditions Were Beyond Harrowing. Photo: O. Even if the sweep successfully wriggled into the narrow portal, there was no guarantee he would make it out: "If the apprentice climbed the whole chimney, cleaning it from hearth to rooftop, and exited a row of chimneys, he could forget which chimney he came out of.

Testicular Cancer Was Rampant.