Sammy left many curious contraptions to me when he passed away in 2002. He had reached his 90s despite having raced trains in a Mini Cooper; survived a car-crash by holding on to the passenger seat so hard that he took it with him through the front window; jumped onto an out-of-control lorry that was jack-knifing its way over ice; and been a motorbike dispatch rider for the B-Specials in WW II.
This one is a chimney cleaner: lowered down from the roof directly into the chimney for the bolts to scrape away excess soot. I remember watching Sammy do it. Only his chain-saw gymnastics were more terrifying, yet oddly life-affirming.
