The 1912 chimney sweep photo that changed how I read old manuals

I was flipping through a 1912 trade journal scan from the Library of Congress archive and noticed the sweep in the photo was using a brush with iron bristles, not the wire ones we assume are modern. Turns out, old catalogs from that era list both, but the iron ones were cheaper and caused more flue scoring, which explains all those cracked terracotta liners in pre-war houses. Has anyone else found a vintage source that contradicts what we were taught in cert class?

2 comments

2 Comments

phoenix_martin4027d ago

Buddy of mine did his whole apprenticeship under a guy who swore by those iron bristle brushes. He found a 1908 catalog in his grandpa's attic showing them as the cheap option and it blew his mind. Said he spent years blaming bad flue installs on everything else.

amy_martin27d ago

Man, that's the kind of find that makes you question everything you thought you knew. So @phoenix_martin40, did that buddy ever actually test the iron brush against the wire one on the same flue, or was it just an eyeball call? I keep wondering if the scoring happened right away or showed up years later, which would change how we read old repair records.