Mechanical contrivance for creating a jet of air, consisting usually of a hinged box with flexible sides, which expands to draw in air through an inward opening valve and contracts to expel the air through a nozzle.
Invented in medieval Europe, the bellows was commonly used to speed combustion, as in a blacksmith's or ironworker's forge , or to operate reed or pipe organs .
Bellows inlaid with mother-of-pearl and pewter, Dutch, 17th century; in the Victoria and Albert ...
By courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London