Hypertext Webster Gateway: "bellows"
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary (easton)
Bellows
occurs only in Jer. 6:29, in relation to the casting of metal.
Probably they consisted of leather bags similar to those common
in Egypt.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Bellows \Bel"lows\, n. sing. & pl. [OE. bely, below, belly,
bellows, AS. b[ae]lg, b[ae]lig, bag, bellows, belly. Bellows
is prop. a pl. and the orig. sense is bag. See {Belly}.]
An instrument, utensil, or machine, which, by alternate
expansion and contraction, or by rise and fall of the top,
draws in air through a valve and expels it through a tube for
various purposes, as blowing fires, ventilating mines, or
filling the pipes of an organ with wind.
{Bellows camera}, in photography, a form of camera, which can
be drawn out like an accordion or bellows.
{Hydrostatic bellows}. See {Hydrostatic}.
{A pair of bellows}, the ordinary household instrument for
blowing fires, consisting of two nearly heart-shaped
boards with handles, connected by leather, and having a
valve and tube.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
bellows
n : a mechanical device that blows air onto a fire to make it
burn more fiercely [syn: {blower}]
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