232
[Book m.
our foundries, has been used to raise water: and every modification of thepump, not even excepting the screw, has been applied as a bellows. 3 Asingulär proof of the analogy between them and of their Connection inancient times, is, that in one of the earliest accounts we have of the cylin-drical pump, (viz. by Vitruvius ) it was used as a bellows “to supplywind to hydraulic Organs.” And that rotary pumps are as numerous asrotary bellows, is known to every mechanic. Thus, while pumps havebeen used as bellows, bellows have been employed as pumps; and everydevice to obtain a continuous current of air in the one, has been adoptedto induce an unbroken stream of water in the other.
The history of the bellows is also that of the pump; and if we mistakenot it afiords the only legitimate source now open in which the origin ofthe latter can be sought for with any prospect of success. Under thisimpression we shall examine the bellows of various people, and in doingso the reader will find an auxiliary, but very important branch of the sub-ject, illustrated at the same time, viz. that which relates to valves, for thebellows was probably the first instrument of which they formed a part.No other ma'chine equally ancient can be pointed out in which they wererequired. In fine, the forcing pump is obviously derived from the bel-lows, or rather it is an application of that instrument to blow water in-stead of air—an application probably coeval with its invention.
The origin of the arts is generally considered as a subject of mere con-jecture. Antiquarians and historians despair of discovering any thing ofimportance relating to the early history of any of the simple machines. Inthe present case, however, there can be no doubt that the first bellows wasthe mouth ; and it was the first pump too, both atmospheric and forcing.The representation of it when employed as a bellows was a favorite sub-ject with ancient statuaries and painters. Pliny gives several examples,and among others, Stipax the Cyprian, who cast an elegant figure of aboy “ roasting and frying meat at the fire, puffing and blowing thereatwith his mouth full of wind, to make it burn.” Aristoclides, was also cele-brated for a painting of a boy, “blowing hard at the coals ; the whole in-ferior of the room appeared to be illuminated with the fire thus urged bythe boy’s breath, and also what a mouth the boy makes.” Holland’sTranslation.
That the bellows is of antediluvian origin, there can be little doubt,for neither Tubal Cain nor any of his pupils could have reduced andwrought iron Without it. The tongs, anvil and hammer of Vulean, (or TubalCain ) have come down to our times, and although the particular form ofhis bellows be not ascertained, that instrument is, we believe, as certainlycontinued in use at the present day, as the tools just named. Nor is thereany thing incredible in such belief, for if even the common opinion, thatthe whole globe was enveloped in the deluge, be true, Noah and his sons,aware that the destinies of their posterity, so far as regarded the arts ofcivilization, must in a great measure depend upon them, would naturallysecure the means of transmitting to them the knowledge of those ma-chines that related to metallurgy, as among the most essential of all. Ofthese, the bellows was quite as important as any other ; without it, othertools would have been of little avail. Now if we refer to oriental ma-chinery, (among which the bellows of the son of Lantech is to be foundif at all,) we shall find, in accordance with its characteristic uncbangeable-ness, that the instrument now used over all Hindostan and Asia in gene-ral, and by the modern blacksmiths of Cairo and Rosetta, is identical with
Hachette’s Traite elemeutaire des Machines, p. 142.