After the discovery of fire, the first instrument employed to blow
it and strengthen it, has undoubtedly been a hollow reed, until the
art was found out of forming a stick into a pipe by boring it. Our
common bellows, which consist of two boards joined together by a piece
of leather, and which probably are an imitation of the lungs, appear
to have been early known to the Greeks. I have, however, met with no
passage in any ancient author from which I could learn the oldest
construction of this machine, which in latter times has received many
improvements. Had I found such information, I should have endeavoured
to explain it, as it would have contributed to enlarge the knowledge we
have of the metallurgy of the ancients.
It may be remarked on the following lines of Virgil,
... Alii taurinis follibus auras
Accipiunt redduntque[140]....
that bull’s leather is unfit for bellows, and that ox or cow leather
only can be used for that purpose; but accuracy is not to be expected
in a poet; and besides, Virgil is not the only author who employs the
expression _folles taurinos_; for Plautus says also, “Quam folles
taurini habent, cum liquescunt petræ, ferrum ubi fit.”
Strabo[141] tells us, from an old historian, that Anacharsis, the
Scythian philosopher, who lived in the time of Solon, invented the
bellows, the anchor, and the potter’s wheel: but this account is very
doubtful, as Pliny, Seneca[142], Diogenes Laërtius[143], and Suidas,
who likewise speak of the inventions ascribed to that philosopher,
mention only the last two, and not the bellows: besides, Strabo himself
remarks that the potter’s wheel is noticed in Homer, and this poet is
certainly older than Anacharsis. The latter, perhaps, became acquainted
with that useful instrument during the course of his travels, and on
his return, made his countrymen first acquainted with it. However this
may be, it is well known that the person who introduces a foreign
invention among a people, is often considered as the author of it.
In the oldest smelting-houses the bellows were worked by men. Refuse,
therefore, and other remains of metal, are often found in places where
until a recent period no works could be erected, on account of the want
of water.
Bellows made with leather, of which I have hitherto spoken, are
attended with many inconveniences. They require careful management; are
expensive in their repairs; and besides last often not more than six or
seven years. If thin leather is employed, it suffers a great deal of
the air to escape through it; an evil which must be guarded against by
continually besmearing it with train-oil, or other fat substances; and
this is even necessary when thick leather is used, to prevent it from
cracking in the folds. Damage by fire and water must also be avoided;
and every time they are repaired, the leather must be again softened
with oil, which occasions a considerable loss of time.
In wooden bellows these inconveniences are partly lessened, and partly
remedied. As these bellows, except the pipe, consist entirely of
wood, many, who are not acquainted with the construction of them, can
hardly conceive the possibility of making such a machine. Though they
cannot be properly described without a figure, I shall endeavour to
give the reader some idea of them by the following short sketch. The
whole machine consists of two boxes placed the one upon the other, the
uppermost of which can be moved up and down upon the lower one, in
the same manner as the lid of a snuff-box, which has a hinge, moves
up and down when it is opened or shut; but the sides of the uppermost
box are so broad as to contain the lower one between them, when it is
raised to its utmost extent. Both boxes are bound together, at the
smallest end, where the pipe is, by a strong iron bolt. It may be
readily comprehended, that when both boxes fit each other exactly, and
the upper one is raised over the under one, which is in a state of
rest, the space contained by both will be increased; and consequently
more air will rush in through the valve in the bottom of the lower
one; and when the upper box is again forced down, this air will be
expelled through the pipe. The only difficulty is to prevent the air,
which forces its way in, from escaping anywhere else than through the
pipe; for it is not to be expected that the boxes will fit each other
so closely as to prevent entirely the air from making its way between
them. This difficulty, however, is obviated by the following simple and
ingenious method. On the inner sides of the uppermost box there are
placed moveable slips of wood, which, by means of metal springs, are
pressed to the sides of the other box, and fill up the space between
them. As these long slips of wood might not be sufficiently pliable to
suffer themselves to be pressed close enough, and as, though planed
perfectly straight at first, they would in time become warped in
various directions, incisions are made in them across through their
whole length, at the distance of from fifteen to eighteen inches from
each other, so as to leave only a small space in their thickness, by
which means they acquire sufficient pliability to be everywhere pressed
close enough to the sides[144].
The advantages of these wooden bellows are very great. When made of
clean fir-wood without knots, they will last thirty or forty years, and
even longer, though continually kept in action forty-six or forty-eight
weeks every year: nay, Polhem assures us, that, when properly made,
they will last a century. The effect produced by them is stronger, as
well as more uniform, and can be moderated according to circumstances.
They are worked also with greater facility. The slips of wood on their
sides are apt to become damaged; but they can soon and easily be
repaired. Every three or four months, however, the outer sides only of
the inner box, and the bolt which keeps the boxes together, must be
smeared with oil. If we reckon up the price of such bellows, and the
yearly expense, they will, according to Grignon’s account, be only a
fifth part of those of the old leather bellows.
That the invention of these wooden bellows belongs to the Germans,
is certain. Grignon[145] expressly affirms so; and in Becher’s[146]
time they were to be found in Germany, but not in England. Genssane,
who ascribes the invention to the Swiss, is certainly mistaken; and
perhaps he was led into this error, because these bellows were first
made known in France by a Swiss. I cannot, however, ascertain the name
of the real inventor. In the middle of the sixteenth century lived at
Nuremberg an artist called Hans Lobsinger, who, in the year 1550, gave
to the magistrates of that city a catalogue of his machines. From this
catalogue Doppelmayer concludes that he understood the art of making
small and large bellows without leather, and entirely of wood, which
could be used in smelting-houses and for organs, and likewise copper
bellows that always emitted a like degree of wind. As Lobsinger made
organs, he, perhaps, fell upon this invention; but in what it actually
consisted, or whether it might not have died with him, I have not been
able to learn. Agricola, who died in the year 1555, makes no mention of
wooden bellows.
Samuel Reyher, formerly professor at Kiel, in a dissertation on
air[147], printed there in 1669, tells us, that about forty years
before that period, two brothers, Martin and Nicholas Schelhorn,
millers at the village of Schmalebuche in Coburg, first invented
wooden bellows. Both the brothers, he says, kept the invention secret,
though he thinks they did not conceal it so closely as to prevent its
being guessed at; and he relates also how he himself formed an idea of
it[148].
To these bellows Schluter has assigned a much nobler inventor, who,
perhaps, was the first person who made them known by a description. He
says expressly that they were invented by a bishop of Bamberg[149]: but
of this I have been able to find no confirmation; and I am inclined to
ascribe that service rather to an organ-builder, or a miller, than to
a bishop. According to Schluter’s account, these bellows were employed
so early as the year 1620, in the Harz forest, to which they were
first brought by some people from Bamberg. What Calvor says respecting
the introduction of these bellows into the Harz forest is much more
probable; that in the year 1621 Lewis Pfannenschmid, from Thuringia,
settled at Ostfeld near Goslar, and began to make wooden bellows. The
bellows-makers of that place conspired therefore against him, and swore
they would put him to death; but he was protected by the government.
He would disclose his art to no one but his son, who, as well as his
grandson a few years ago, had the making of all the bellows in the
forest.
We are told by French authors, that the art of making these bellows was
introduced into France, particularly into Berry, Nivernois, and Franche
Comté, by a German.