BLOWING-MACHINES, in the arts and manufactures, and in domestic economy, are instruments for producing a continued current of air, principally for the purpose of facilitating the combustion of fuel. The first idea of such a machine was doubtless derived from the lungs, which we are constantly in the habit of using for the purpose of blowing, but more especially in the simple and useful application of the blow-pipe.
Of these different machines, the common bellows Common bears the greatest resemblance to the lungs, and was, Bellows. In all probability, the first contrivance for artificial blowing. In the first instance, this instrument might be a simple bag, capable of distension by a mechanical force, the air being drawn in and pressed out of the same aperture in the manner of breathing. The first improvement upon this simple form would be, to admit the air by a valve opening inwards when the bellows were distended, the blast outwards being