Fire as an agent in human culture / by Walter Hough.

  • Walter Hough
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fire as an agent in human culture / by Walter Hough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the circular underground kivas. As a suggested corollary, the peo¬ ple mentioned left no inheritance in the present Pueblos; that is, the stem was broken off. In passing it may be said that tlie Hopi field-oven flue has no con¬ nection with the circular kiva ventilator. BELLOWS A very early experience coming to all who attended the fire was the effect of currents of air on combustion. Draught also determined the location and protection of fire to a great degree. These primitive dispositions were weighted with future advances of great importance. The encouragement of fire by means of currents of air has its sim¬ plest material expressions in a leaf which becomes the fire fan of world-wide distribution (pi. 6, figs. 1-6). This simple device does not arrive at its full development till in the highest civilization the fan blower is invented. The impulse of human breath is an early method of blowing the fire and does not become tangible until the tube blower for concen¬ trating the air appears. This device is met with in many parts of the world, and in America especially is connected with primitive metallurgy. The tube, it may be said, remains in the higher fire art as the tuyere of the furnace through which the blast is driven. Much later than these devices comes the bellows in its simplest form, a bag for impounding the air and acting as the human lungs. Simple forms like this, consisting of a single bag furnishing an inter¬ mittent blast, are found in Asia (Tibet)57 and Africa (Khartoum, Egypt, etc.). In Africa an advance is made by attaching two impounding bags to the nozzle. This device was known in Egypt as early as Thotmes III, as shown by wall decorations depicting two leather bags fitted in a frame, the operator standing opening the bags with a cord and closing the mouth alternately with his foot.58 The Hindu bellows is also worked by the heel or thumb of the operator closing or opening the inlet. The necessity of a continuous blast more easily manageable must have been obvious to the workers having the simple bellows. The first steps toward the valve are observed in Africa, where the struc¬ ture of the bellows is a carved wood frame of Y shape with two bowl-shaped cavities at the ends of the arms. Over the bowls are tied somewhat loosely pieces of skin with the fur side inward. Plung¬ ing rods are fastened to the apex of the skin bags. On the upstroke the air is drawn in around the edges of the skin, and on the down stroke the fur is compressed against the edge of the bowl, giving a 67 W. W. Rockhill. Journey Through Mongolia and Tibet, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1894. J. Q. Wilkinson. Ancient Egypt, New York, 1879, vol. 2, p. 312.