It is quite dark in here… I am inside a vertical tube like structure.
Oh look! I can see the sky from here. Hmmm… so one opening brings me to the outside world. Where does the other end lead?
These walls on both sides seem like brick walls but they have some sort of lining on them.
It smells like something has been burnt here and both the sides of the walls are dark like charcoal. Now this tube like structure has some wider chamber from which I can smell the smoke.
Aaaghhh!! I just slipped on to this basement floor. And I am all dark with ash!
Oh well!
I was Inside a Chimney!
I better hurry and take a bath now. I wonder how Santa does it every year at every house he visits…
What is inside a Chimney?
- A fireplace chimney is a complex structure and can contain as many as 22 parts inside it. Let us look at the simpler parts of a regular chimney.
- The top of the chimney which is visible from the roof has a chimney crown which protects the chimney from water, dampness and deterioration.
- The vertical passage that connects the chimney from the roof to the smoke chamber is called the Flue. It can be a duct or a pipe on smaller chimneys. The flue has a flue lining so that it is not a fire hazard. The lining is to avoid any inflammable debris.
- There is a smoke chamber that compresses by-products of combustion into smaller pieces and sends it up the chimney. There are chimney dampers which are doors within the chimney that can be closed when the fireplace is not in use.
- The smoke shelf behind the chimney damper catches rain water debris and rain water and helps in carrying large smoke out through the chimney.
- The ash dump and ash pit lie below the smoke shelf and collect ash. There is a clean out door used to clean the collected ash form the ash dump.
- There is a footing which is the horizontal surface below the ash pit and is made of concrete to hold the chimney securely in its place. The lowest part of the chimney is the foundation which is made of strong bricks and is exposed really hot ash from the fireplace.