Who Was Joe Baxi?

[GPSmith]

Back in the mid 80's during a government backed training scheme, i met a man in his 60's (my bricklayer instructor) who said "Joe Baxi" was the man credited with the design of the venturi in a chimney (the narrowing of the top of the fireplace which sucked up the fumes and embers allowing only the heat to enter the room.
It was common knowledge in those days.

[Zacs-Master]

I think your instructor was pulling your leg. Joe Backsi (rhyming slang for ‘taxi’ of course) was a boxer and Baxi is a company making boilers etc which was started by Richard Baxendale.

[GPSmith]

My instructor's generation were using the term/slang in the 40's. Well before your boxer was on the scene.

[Arksided]

I always thought it was a play on words with the French singer Vanessa Paradis song joe le taxi.

[GPSmith]

Also, it's more than conceivable for a fireplace designer to evolve/progress towards heating boilers.

[barry1010]

"...his work on the venturi principle and is named after an Italian physicist Giovanni Batista Venturi (1746 - 1822)" https://www.mrfixitbali.com/building-design/chimneys-and-flues-43.html

Can't find any mention of a Joe Baxi in relation to chimneys

[GPSmith]

Not chimneys. Fireplaces.

[ToraToraTora]

If it's a Venturi then it was named after the italian physcist. Perhaps this "Baxi" guy is credited with the chimney adoption of it.

[Ken4155]

Didn't Vanessa Paradis sing about Joey Baxi:-)

[GPSmith]

A venturi us any narrowing of a flow of either air or liquid. Think of a carburettor.
The Baxi fireplace modification was a protrusion of the rear upper side of the fireplace, squeezing the ventilation route otherwise known as a chimney.
The name Baxi was pressed into the (asbestos based) product we installed during our training projects.

[THECORBYLOON]

From Wikipedia, "Baksi left for Europe on October 9, 1946 to fight the two British champions. He first defeated British light heavy weight champion Freddie Mills. Baksi was sluggish in the first round, but Mills (who had chronic eye problems) suffered a cut in his right eye in the second round, and his left eye in the third. After a bad battering, Mills gave up at the end of the sixth round.

Baksi then went on to fight British heavyweight champion Bruce Woodcock on 15 April 1947. Baksi floored Woodcock three times in the first round and twice in the second. Woodcock made a comeback in the fifth, but Baksi was scoring at will when the referee stopped it in the seventh. Woodcock went to the hospital with a broken jaw."

He would have been well-known in 1940s Britain.

[Zacs-Master]

‘ The name Baxi was pressed into the (asbestos based) product we installed during our training projects’

Yes I covered that in my first post - Richard Baxendale set up the company.

And Joe Backsi the boxer was boxing in the 1940s.

[sandyRoe]

Has Joe Back gone into rhyming slang for a taxi?
Do English people still use Ruby(Ruby Murray) for a curry?

[sandyRoe]

Autocorrect..decided on Back rather than Baxi.

[THECORBYLOON]

GPSMITH, which is more likely, an American who definitely beat two British boxing champions at different weights or someone claimed to have improved the performance of chimneys?