When Benjamin Franklin invented his lightning rod in 1752, most Christians were far from eager to place a rod of iron designed by an arch-heretic at the top of their churches near the holy cross of Christ. Neither did they desire to abandon the ancient Christian game of praising God (or blaming the devil), for lightning strikes and storms.In America the earthquake of 1755 was widely ascribed, especially in Massachusetts, to Franklin's rod. The Rev. Thomas Prince, pastor of the Old South Church, published a sermon on the subject, and in the appendix expressed the opinion that the frequency of earthquakes may be due to the erection of iron points invented by the sagacious Mr. Franklin. He goes on to argue that in Boston are more erected than anywhere else in New England, and Boston seems to be more dreadfully shaken. Oh! There is no getting out of the mighty hand of God.
I dont believe it will ever hurt anyone to have carbon monoxide detectors in the home. Especially one this old. From what I saw in the picture you may have a serious problem up in there someplace. there is too many cracks and damage in there. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if something didn't crumble and clog it up. I think you might be looking at a huge expense to get it fixed too. If you bought this recently you might want to check and see if there are some sort of building codes that you might be responsible for getting updated. I just see way too much cracking in the mortar and brick to let that stay there much longer.
Look into WellFlo, from Weatherford's eP division (it does pipelines as well as wells), Prosper from Petroleum Experts, or PipeSim from Baker Jardine and/or Schlumberger. WellFlo is excellent calculations hiding behind a rather outdated-looking user interface. The other two look jazzier, but be careful of the results.
Yes, you probably do have exhaust gasses escaping into your house. You need to check with a local heating company, but you should be able to install a flue liner. If that is not possible you may be faced with having to open the walls, tear down rebuild the chimney. The smoke your mother saw was probably water vapor in cold airwater vapor (steam) is a by-product of burning natural gas. Yes, I would put carbon monoxide detectors on all 3 floors. Even though it is cold outside, a window open on each floor will help prevent carbon dioxide carbon monoxide build-up. Good luck
always have a carbon monoxide detector if you burn any type fuel for heat.it will give you early warning . your chimney looks bad,but you know that . can you heat with electric,possibly space heaters for this winter and in the spring get an insert installed or replace it with a pipe? it may be getting hot and burning on the inside ,im concerned about a hot wall .i trust you have smoke detectors,place 1 near the hot spot. sorry if any of that came out lame i know your between a rock and a hard place,i would consider an alternate heat source till you can do repairs,i would be afraid of it ,were it mine.
What state you live in? It's snowing here in Michigan right now. Ok The chimney looks a little rough but if you can check the draft by going to that cleanout door and take some rolled up paper and set the end on fire then blow it out so it will smoke good. Hold the smoking paper near the cleanout opening and see how the smoke gets sucked in and up the chimney. (If you smoke cigarettes, use that instead) That will tell you the natural draft is good and ok to use your furnace. And yes, I would have the chimney guys inspect it at the earliest opportunity. And for now (well for always) get a carbon monoxide detector; it just plugs in any wall outlet and will detect any fumes from the furnace or chimney. Good Luck
