THE PATENT RAMONEUR[3] ASSOCIATION, FOR PROMOTING THE SWEEPING OF CHIMNEYS BY MACHINERY.—CENTRAL OFFICE, 34, FOLEY-PLACE, PORTLAND-PLACE.
[3] From the French verb “Ramoner,” to sweep.
In consequence of an Act passed August 7, 1840, intituled, “An Act for the Regulation of Chimney-sweepers and Chimneys,” by which it is enacted, “That from and after the first of July, 1842, any person who shall compel or knowingly allow any child or young person, under the age of twenty-one years, to ascend or descend a chimney or enter a flue for the purpose of sweeping, cleaning, or coring the same, or for extinguishing a fire therein, shall be liable to a penalty of not more than ten pounds, or less than five pounds,”—all chimneys from henceforth must be cleaned and swept by machinery.
This Association of gentlemen has its origin in an earnest desire to promote a cause which has long occupied the attention of the warmest friends of humanity, and to give decided and practical effect to the provisions of the above-mentioned Act of Parliament.
In responding to the call of humanity, by the entire abolition of the unseemly and afflicting practice of cleansing chimneys by the direct agency of the Living Infant Sweeper, the authority of the Legislature has been exercised to confer a public benefit, in the abatement of an evil of great magnitude, and a fruitful source of lasting misery. It only remains that the detail of minor arrangements be carried out in the way that may seem the best adapted to perfecting the working of the Act, and accomplish the requisite changes, consistently with the public sense of fitness and propriety.
This Association, therefore, brings before the country an efficacious means of obviating, for the future, the necessity or any approach to the evils of the old system, in accordance with the general feeling and opinion on the subject, and in strict and active furtherance of the law as it now stands.
The considerations which the Association desire to lay before the public arrange themselves under the following general heads:—
The well-known and acknowledged difficulty and danger of the old process, and the dangerous exposure and risk to property, in large masses, from the imperfect performance of former methods.
The harsh, not to say hard and cruel, treatment of the infant sweeper, from a necessity (in a certain degree, perhaps) inseparable from the nature of the old process, and the effects of prescriptive custom, as exercised by unenlightened masters.
The unerring and perfect performance of the Association’s new Machinery, coupled with its simplicity of construction, its great effective power, and its ease of management.