Where Do Blowers Come From? | "Traditional" Blacksmithing | Forum

i remember seeing a picture of a blower made from tin and wood in a civil war picture ... thats the earliest ive seen the cast iron blowers you see on forges usually date 1900 or so maybee a few earlier say 1880 not much earlier than that . according to my research (reading old magazines from 1900s ) the hand crank blower was still considered new fangled in 1910! one smith talked about owning his own shop and buying a blower and how his dad said "you dont need that thing bellows work just fine" ! they were talking about the changes hapening with the availability of power( hit & miss gas engines) and the comeing of the automobile ! this is 1911 publication and they were defenitely looking at the future ... and the same publication by 1920 had changed its name from American Blacksmith to American Blacksmith Auto and Tractor Shop! kind of fun to see how much things had changed in 10 years from a few cars to according to the 1920 census 7.2 million regestered cars in the united states! anyway blowers were probably a novelity prior to 1860 or so ...

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