Chimney facts for kids

The world's tallest chimney can be found at Ekibastuz, Kazakhstan.

A chimney is a structure used to ventilate hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Most chimneys are vertical, or almost vertical, to make sure that the gases flow easily, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the stack, or chimney, effect. The space inside a chimney is called a flue. Chimneys may be found in buildings, steam locomotives and ships. In the United States, the term smokestack is also used when talking about locomotive chimneys or ship chimneys, the word funnel can be used too.

The Height of a chimney is really important, when higher, chimney's dispersion of pollutants will not cause too much influence on surrounding areas. Tall chimneys also allow chemicals to self-neutralize in the air before they reach the ground.

History

A smoke hood in the Netherlands. Image: Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands

Chimney pots in London, England, seen from the tower of Westminster Roman Catholic cathedral

Seagull sits on top of a hot gas cooling chimney at The World of Glass St. Helens UK.

Romans used tubes inside the walls to draw smoke out of bakeries but chimneys only appeared in large dwellings in northern Europe in the 12th century.

Chimneys in ordinary dwellings were first built of wood and plaster or mud. Since then chimneys have traditionally been built of brick or stone, both in small and large buildings. Early chimneys were of a simple brick construction. Later chimneys were constructed by placing the bricks around tile liners. To control downdrafts, venting caps (often called chimney pots) with a variety of designs are sometimes placed on the top of chimneys.

Images for kids

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  A chimney remaining after the destruction of a 19th-century two-story house (Mount Solon, Virginia).

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  Seagull sits on top of a hot gas cooling chimney at The World of Glass, St. Helens, UK.

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  A section of a large late Georgian four storey house, showing the advantage of using a mechanical sweeper over climbing boys

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  Carved brick chimneys characteristic of late Gothic Tudor buildings, at Thornbury Castle, 1514

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  A chimney with two clay-tile flue liners

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  Rows of chimney pots in an English town, 2013.

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  Spanish Conquistador style wind directional cowl found on many homes along the windy Oregon coast.

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  An H-style cowl

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  An abandoned chimney in Freda, Michigan

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  Chimneys on the Parliamentary Library in Wellington, New Zealand.

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  Iconic non-operational chimney of the Chernobyl reactor #4, preserved as part of the Chernobyl sarcophagus.

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  Modernist chimneys on the Casa Milà (Barcelona, Spain), by Antoni Gaudí.

See also

In Spanish: Chimenea para niños