Category:Bellows

Bel"lows, n. sing. & pl. Etym: [OE. bely, below, belly, bellows, AS. bælg, bælig, bag, bellows, belly. Bellows is prop. a pl. and the orig. sense is bag. See Belly.]

Defn: 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.

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Bellows - Occurs only in Jeremiah 6:29, in relation to the casting of metal. Probably they consisted of leather bags similar to those common in Egypt.