Single-chamber bellows

The word miech (meaning bellows) is an old Slavic name for a leather bag. Bellows were used to force air into the hearth, which provided oxygen and thus accelerated the start of the fire. These devices were manufactured by bellows makers, a craft that is now dying out. The operation of the bellows was simple - with the help of manually operated arms, air was forced through an opening in the bellows, and was then streamed towards the hearth through a metal nozzle at the end of the tool. The presented single-chamber small bellows from the first half of the 20th century was made of hand-finished leather. It typically takes the form of a flexible pouch fastened by rivets to a wooden casing.In the past, bellows of various sizes were used in forges, where it was important to start a fire quickly and get the hearth or furnace at the right temperature. Nowadays, electric fans are used to start the fire in forge hearths. Bellows similar to the one presented here are still produced and used to light fires in domestic cookers, fireplaces or barbecues. Agnieszka Słowińska