Water-powered bellows for blast furnaces
Fuelle hidráulico para altos hornos
- Date
- 31 CE · confidence high
- Place
- Nanyang, Henan, China
- Credited to
- Du Shi, prefect of Nanyang
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
A water wheel that drives, via a crank and connecting rods, the bellows of iron furnaces. It made it possible to increase the temperature and size of blast furnaces without human or animal labour.
Wang Zhen (1313) describes the connecting-rod mechanism in detail; water-powered bellows appear in Europe in the 13th century.
What it led to
- greater cast iron production
- large blast furnaces in Han and Song China