Spread of Use
The historical text Sanguo Zhi (Records of the Three Kingdoms) records the use of both human labor and horse-power to operate metallurgic bellows of a blast furnace before water-power was applied. It also records that the engineer and Prefect of Luoling Han Ji (d. 238) reinvented a similar water-powered bellows that Du Shi had earlier pioneered. Two decades after this, it is recorded that another design for water-powered bellows was created by Du Yu (222–285). In the 5th century text of the Wu Chang Ji, its author Pi Ling wrote that a planned, artificial lake had been constructed in the Yuanjia reign period (424–429) for the sole purpose of powering water wheels aiding the smelting and casting processes of the Chinese iron industry. The 5th century text Shui Jing Zhu mentions the use of rushing river water to power waterwheels, as does the Tang Dynasty (618–907) geography text of the Yuanhe Jun Xian Tu Chi, written in 814 AD.
Although Du Shi is the first historical figure to apply water power to metallurgic bellows, the oldest extant Chinese illustration depicting such a device in operation can be seen in a picture of the Nong Shu, printed by 1313 AD during the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) of China. The text was written by Wang Zhen, who explained the methods used for a water-powered blast-furnace (Wade-Giles spelling):
| “ | According to modern study (+1313!), leather bag bellows were used in olden times, but now they always use wooden fan (bellows)(mu shan). The design is as follows. A place beside a rushing torrent is selected, and a vertical shaft is set up in a framework with two horizontal wheels so that the lower one is rotated by the force of the water. The upper one is connected by a driving belt to a (smaller) wheel in front of it, which bears an eccentric lug (lit. oscillating rod). Then all as one, following the turning (of the driving wheel), the connecting-rod attached to the eccentric lug pushes and pulls the rocking roller, the levers to left and right of which assure the transmission of the motion to the piston-rod (chih mu). Thus this is pushed back and forth, operating the furnace bellows far more quickly than would be possible with man-power. | ” |
Read more about this topic: Du Shi, The Water-Powered Blast Furnace
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“Every thought is public,
Every nook is wide;
Thy gossips spread each whisper,
And the gods from side to side.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)