Flues to free-standing chimnies.

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plodger
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

14 years ago

On several engine-house sites I've visited the chimney stands a short distance away from the engine and boiler house. There is always a square (about two foot) hole at ground level in the chimney which must be the entrance to allow the flue gases from the boiler to be drawn up and away. Despite looking over lots of old pictures I haven't been able to find out exactly how these gases got from the boiler to the base of the chimney. There must have been some sort of pipework - was it round or square in section? Was it metal or wood? Was it on the surface or sunken? How was it terminated at the chimney end - straight through the hole or into a terminal box? Did it have a facility for maintenance and cleaning? So many questions but does anybody have any answers; or even educated guesses?

Ian H.

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scooptram
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

most of the ones ive seen have been trenches with stone walls coverd with stone sets then earth

Morlock
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

I suspect the hole you refer to is probably the 'soot door', the flue being a stone arched underground duct.

This publication sounds interesting;

STONE STACKS & BRICK SHAFTS by Alan McEwen

Roger L
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

Morlock looks to have hit the nail on the head. Up North we have mill chimneys as well as ones from the mine workings where the chimney is higher up the hill with stone under or over ground tunnels leading too them.
In some lead processes there is lead in the vapour from the process so it can be removed in the tunnel part as it cools down the vapour and re processed.

Mine Lectures & Walks available for around Huddersfield

Boggy
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

at all the cotton mills i worked in in oldham the boiler house was below ground level so there was a 6ft high underground flue leading to the chimney,this allowed for the wheelbarrowing out of the soot that collects at the bottom,some mills did have inspection hatches on chimney base.

if its a hole explore it...

Morlock
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

"Isabel Gott" wrote:
where the chimney is higher up the hill with stone under or over ground tunnels leading too them.

One of the longest, reputed to have a vertical rise of around 1000 feet.
Many local tales of objects being sucked up the flue due to it's fearsome draught, best one was a pony that was found stone dead at the top of the hill. 😉

http://www.digitaldesk.org/resources/afanvalley/cwmafan.htm

http://www.tpyf-wales.com/index.php?lang=en&subj=5685&id=1106&size=2&t=2

Edit:"The culvert was an engineering achievement of the time and was nearly one mile long, climbing the mountainside. This tunnel was 15ft in width and 11ft in height. The Stack was the largest of its kind at the time and was considered one of the wonders of Glamorgan."

Alasdair Neill
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

The flue would normally stone, probably the reason they sometimes don't survive is it would be an easy source for robbing stone.

carnkie
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

An example near me is the English Arsenic Works near Roseworthy. Here the common flue stretched up from the vally, which had all the equipment, up under the fields covered by earth so that no sign of it can seen on the surface, to the single stack. On the second photo you can see the remains of the workings in the valley bottom left, just.
🔗ENGLISH-ARSENIC-COMPANY-ROSEWORTHY-CAMBORNE-Factory-User-Album-Image-32066[linkphoto]ENGLISH-ARSENIC-COMPANY-ROSEWORTHY-CAMBORNE-Factory-User-Album-Image-32066[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗ENGLISH-ARSENIC-COMPANY-ROSEWORTHY-CAMBORNE-Factory-User-Album-Image-32065[linkphoto]ENGLISH-ARSENIC-COMPANY-ROSEWORTHY-CAMBORNE-Factory-User-Album-Image-32065[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗ENGLISH-ARSENIC-COMPANY-ROSEWORTHY-CAMBORNE-Factory-User-Album-Image-32063[linkphoto]ENGLISH-ARSENIC-COMPANY-ROSEWORTHY-CAMBORNE-Factory-User-Album-Image-32063[/linkphoto][/link]

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

plodger
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

14 years ago

Thanks for all of these replies. I'm sure that your right and that the flues were underground as they ran from boiler to chimney - if I had thought about it a bit more it would have become obvious. Thanks also for the explanation of the 'soot hole'. I also learnt that the plural of chimney is chimneys!

Ian H.