Robotic Chimney Sweep

Cast your mind back... way back... okay, no, not that far, put the dinosaurs away and bring your mind forward a little... and... there we go.

We're in 1666. To be precise, it's September 6th, 1666. And it's Monday. Oh, and London stopped burning down yesterday.

In a bid to prevent that happening again things need to change, and one of those things was to start cleaning out chimneys on a regular basis. With children. Because they fit. And it turns out they are very cheap and will work long hours.

Bring your mind forward some 209 years. It's now September 1875. I don't know the precise date, nor the day. What I do know, is the Chimney Sweepers' Act of 1875 just got passed and now, at least throughout England, you're not allowed to go stuffing small children up chimney's to keep them clean.

What to do!?

Brushes. Brushes on a long stick. A very long extendable stick. That works, and with the dawn of the vacuum cleaner nearing, things are about to get a lot cleaner.

Well, that's been about it. Some improvements on the fuels being burned help improve the reduction of waste, smoke, tar build-up, and all manner of bad things; though fundamentally, there's a lot of cleaning that still needs to be done.

So it's about time for some innovation in chimney sweeping!

Roll up, roll up... here comes the robotic chimney sweeper.

I have a couple of concepts in mind:

Chimney Drone:
A drone-like bot that stays suspended in the chimney with extended rods that keep it positioned in the chimney and the drone moves up and down the chimney monitoring and cleaning as necessary; staying out of the way of the heat.

Chimney Bug:
A bug-like bot that sticks to the chimney wall and travels around the chimney continually monitoring and cleaning.

Both will monitor airflow and temperatures, toxin build-up, and have lights and cameras for monitoring the internal structure of the chimneys.

Concept (c) 2019 letsbuildathing.com