Child chimney sweep

Small boys between the ages of five and 10 are sought to clamber up chimneys to clean out deposits of soot.

Some of the chimneys are extremely narrow, perhaps only 18 centimetres square, and you may be reluctant at first to wriggle into them. However, your employer will give you plent of encouragement by lighting straws beneath your feet, or sticking pins into you. You may suffer some cuts, grazes and bruises at first, but months of suffering will toughen up your skin until it has a leather-like quality.

Sweeps have other things to look forward to – twisted spines and kneecaps, deformed ankles, eye inflammations and respiratory illnesses. The first known industrial disease – chimney sweep's cancer – appears in the testicles from the constant irritation of the soot on naked skin. Many sweeps are maimed or killed after falling or being badly burned, while others suffocate when they become trapped in the curves of chimneys.
 
Although you will officially be apprenticed as a chimney sweep, there really is no work of any value to be had at the end of your years of training. Despite your poor diet, you will have grown too large to be of any use.

Tasks & duties

• Climbing up narrow and windy chimney passages.
• Cleaning away soot deposits.
• Maintaining cleaning equipment.

Personal requirements

• Small physical stature.
• Flexibility.
• Nimbleness and good climbing skills.
• An ability to work in cramped conditions.