Model

Piston Bellows

Model piston bellows. Two bamboo tubes, bound together with strips of rattan peel. One tube is closed off at the bottom by a septum, the other is open. Two small bamboo vents, to be inserted in holes at the bottoms of the two wide tubes. Two wooden pistons, one ending in a wooden disk with remnants of feathers, the other a shaft only, missing disk and feathers. Depressing the pistons, with the feather-edged disks, forces air from the bellows through the vents towards the blacksmith's fire. Exhibited at Wistar May 1897: "Model of a forge showing bellows made of joints of bamboo & having long levers attached to the pistons."