Beyond Furnaces and Slags A Review Study

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa
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Beyond furnaces and slags: a review study of

bellows and their role in indigenous African
metallurgical processes
Shadreck Chirikure , Rob Burrett & Robert B. Heimann
To cite this article: Shadreck Chirikure , Rob Burrett & Robert B. Heimann (2009) Beyond
furnaces and slags: a review study of bellows and their role in indigenous African
metallurgical processes, Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 44:2, 195-215, DOI:
10.1080/00671990903047108
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Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa
Vol. 44, No. 2, August 2009, 195215
Beyond furnaces and slags: a review study of bellows and their role in
indigenous African metallurgical processes
Shadreck Chirikurea*, Rob Burrettb and Robert B. Heimannc
a
Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, South Africa; bIndependent Scholar,
Khami Enterprises, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe; cDr.-Kahlbaum-Allee 2, D-02826 Görlitz, Germany
Downloaded by [University of Cape Town Libraries] at 07:52 19 November 2015
Combustion was pivotal in the heat-mediated process of indigenous metalwork-

ing in precolonial Africa. For such combustion to be initiated, a consistent supply
of air was essential and because bellows generated the air that precipitated
the chemical reactions integral to smelting and forging, they were thus critical
apparatus in these pursuits. Surprisingly, bellows have failed to attract much
academic research when compared to other components of indigenous metal-
working such as furnaces, slags and tuyères. Perhaps the excellent preservation of
remnants of furnaces and slags, and the contrasting perishable nature of bellows,
is largely responsible for this lack of interest. This paper deals with a ‘forgotten’
but essential aspect of indigenous metal working in sub-Saharan Africa the
bellows. It discusses their chronology, distribution, technical parameters and
socio-cultural dimensions. It achieves this by melding multiple strands of evidence
from archaeology and its cognate disciplines.
Keywords: bellows; natural draught; tuyères; smelting; forging; precolonial Africa
La combustion était au centre du processus de la métallurgie traditionnelle en

Afrique précoloniale. Elle se réalisait grâce à une alimentation conséquente en air
entraı̂nant des réactions chimiques durant les phases de réduction et de forgeage.
Les soufflets assurant cette alimentation étaient donc les instruments essentiels
de ce processus. Paradoxalement, ils n’ont pas suscité beaucoup d’études en
comparaison avec les autres éléments constituants de la métallurgie traditionnelle
(les fours, les scories et les tuyères). L’excellente conservation des fours et des
scories, comparée à la nature périssable des soufflets, est en grande partie
responsable de ce manque d’intérêt. Cet article traite d’un aspect « oublié », mais
essentiel dans la compréhension de la métallurgie traditionnelle en l’Afrique
Subsaharienne les soufflets. Nous y discutons de leur chronologie, de leur
distribution, de leurs paramètres techniques et de leurs dimensions sociocul-
turelles grâce au croisement de données mises en évidence par l’archéologie et les
disciplines apparentées.
Introduction
The beginning of metalworking represents an important watershed in the techno-
logical history of Sub-Saharan Africa (McIntosh and McIntosh 1988; Miller and van
der Merwe 1994; Killick 2004a; Chirikure 2007). Not surprisingly, enviable research
efforts have been invested in understanding the new technology and its social and
*Corresponding author. Email: shadreck.chirikure@uct.ac.za

ISSN 0067-270X print/ISSN 1945-5534 online
# 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/00671990903047108
http://www.informaworld.com
196 S. Chirikure et al.
technical correlates. Over the years, a triad of research strands have coalesced to give
contemporary studies of indigenous metalworking in Africa their present momen-
tum and character. The first of these was the rise of Iron Age studies in the 1960s
(Fagan 1965; van der Merwe 1980; Miller and van der Merwe 1994; Schmidt 1997;
Killick 2004a). This saw the emergence of a strong interest in Africa’s recent
past and, consequently, studies of metalworking technologies were given a major
opportunity. The second was an increase in ethnographic research after the Second
World War. It was realised that the last repositories of the hitherto unrecorded
knowledge of indigenous metallurgy were dying and smelting reconstructions were
carried out to salvage the remaining information (Schmidt 1978; Todd 1985; van der
Merwe and Avery 1987; David et al. 1989; Killick 1990). Particular attention was
paid to the processes of smelting and smithing, as well as to the associated socio-
cultural beliefs (Childs 1991). The last strand is linked with the flourishing of the
sub-discipline of archaeometallurgy, which integrated data from several disciplines
with the aim of reconstructing the technical and sociocultural aspects of indigenous
metalworking (Miller and Killick 2004; Chirikure and Rehren 2006; Chirikure et al.
2009; Heimann et al. 2009). Nowadays, research on indigenous metalworking is
progressing at a steady pace and has successfully managed to blend the best in terms
of theory and method from wide ranging fields of human endeavour.
Indigenous metalworking comprised three distinct but successive operations:
mining/collecting, concentrating and cleaning the ore, smelting to produce the metal,
and smithing to manufacture objects (Miller 1997; Bisson 2000; Miller and Killick
2004; Rehren et al. 2007; Heimann et al. 2009). During the process of smelting, ores
were reduced to metal by carbon monoxide in charcoal-fuelled furnaces to produce a
spongy mass of metal called bloom and slag waste products. This enterprise
demanded specialised skills in maintaining a balance between the different variables
for it to be successful (Rostoker and Bronson 1991). Smelters, for example, had to
choose the right raw materials, and adequate air to fuel and ore to charcoal ratios
had to be maintained (David et al. 1989; Killick 1990; Tabor et al. 2005). Generally,
the end products included the metal bloom and waste materials such as slag, broken
tuyères and furnaces. Since the metal still contained some impurities (Crew 1991), it
was subsequently refined in smithing hearths and fashioned into usable objects.
While this general description fits the metal iron quite well, by their very nature
copper and tin were treated differently. The smelting of copper and tin produced
prills that were melted in secondary vessels to consolidate them into usable metal
(Bisson 2000; Chirikure et al. 2009).
As products of high temperature processes, the remains from indigenous
metalworking contain partial histories of the activities that created them (Killick
1990; Miller and Killick 2004). As such, archaeometallurgical studies have primarily
been concerned with reconstructing the technology of the process as revealed by
slags, tuyères, collapsed furnaces and remnants of ore (Miller and van der Merwe
1994; Heimann et al. 2009). Examples of the technical data obtained include the
quality of the ore used (Killick 1990), the efficiency of reduction (metal recovery)
(Chirikure 2005, 2006) and the refractory nature of the clays used to make tuyères
and furnaces (Miller and Killick 2004). While the bloomery technology pervaded
Sub-Saharan Africa, it was realised that the universalising nature of this term
masked some misleading homogeneities (Schmidt 2001). This observation was
demonstrated by the existence of profound variations in the technology and the
Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 197
chaı̂ne opératoire of iron and copper working which produced a tremendous range
in furnace and bellow designs (Killick 1990, 2004b), ore to fuel proportions (David
et al. 1989), smelting duration (Todd 1985), and bloom quality in both the
archaeological and the ethnographic records (Cline 1937; Miller and van der Merwe
1994).
Sometimes, smelting experiments were conducted to gain a deeper understanding
of these variables in indigenous copper, tin (Friede and Steel 1975) and iron-smelting.
David et al. (1989), for example, carried out ethnographic work in the Mandara plain
of northern Cameroon. They studied the Mafa iron-smelting technology, which
consisted of a 2.68 m high forced draught low shaft furnace with a pendant tuyère.
Mafa smelters produced a mix of cast iron and low carbon steel that was subsequently
decarburised in crucibles. The details from the experiments were crucial in throwing
insight into the archaeological processes of smelting. However, they did not dwell
much on the technical details of the bellows used. The volume of air produced, for
example, was not measured and neither was the air to fuel ratio quantified.
Importantly, the purely technical acts were imbued with the non-technical rituals
and belief systems. Throughout most of Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, iron-
smelting was associated with human gestation and reproduction (Childs 1991;
Herbert 1993). This is sometimes demonstrated by the practice of decorating furnaces
with female anatomical parts such as moulded breasts (see Figure 1). Additionally,
beliefs in witchcraft were prevalent amongst many smelting communities and
medicines were invariably used in metal smelting (copper, tin and iron) to neutralise
the powers of inauspicious sorcerers. Archaeologically and ethnographically, this
practice is showcased by the existence of medicine pots strategically placed in either
holes underneath smelting furnaces in places such as Cameroon (Rowlands and
Figure 1. Photograph of decorated low shaft furnace, from Nyanga, northeastern Zimbabwe.
Warnier 1993), Malawi (van der Merwe and Avery 1987) and Tanzania (Schmidt
1997), or on top of the heat shield supposed to protect the bellows operators (David
et al. 1989). Nowadays, it is universally agreed that indigenous metalworking
comprises simultaneously technical and sociocultural traits (Killick 2004c).
Like furnaces, bellows were sometimes gendered. Perhaps the best illustration of
this is provided by the Toro of Uganda whose bellows were metaphorically paired
as male and female, and together they generated air which led to the successful
gestation of a baby iron in the smelting furnace. This is hardly surprising given
the dominance of the procreational paradigm in indigenous smelting practices
(Childs and Killick 1993; Herbert 1993).
There is no doubt that the study of indigenous metalworking has advanced both
in terms of theories, methods and issues that are researched (Chirikure 2007; Rehren
et al. 2007). However, a careful review of the subject reveals a curious lack of
academic engagement with the technical and sociocultural significance of bellows.
Ironically, most smelting experiments measured the amounts of charcoal consumed
and the duration of the smelt, but the performance of the bellows was largely
ignored. This is despite the fact that bellows were critical in generating the air
essential for reduction and forging. In fact, issues such as the efficiency of the
reduction process would have been understood better if the air to charcoal ratios had
been quantified (see Friede and Steel 1975, 1986). This would have promoted the
development of models for understanding the patterning of bellows and explaining
why certain types were preferred to others. Since bellows were used either with
furnaces or smithing hearths and since some furnaces were used without them, the
next section considers the different furnace types and the methods of air provision.
Methods of air provision into the furnaces and hearths: on bellows and natural draught
In indigenous smelting, bellows were rarely used on their own but were connected to
furnaces, and it is likely that their designs were customised to suit different furnace
designs. Interestingly, the bellows used seem to be homogenous across the range
of metals worked precolonially in Sub-Saharan Africa (Cline 1937). To begin with
however, a brief overview of the variety of furnaces used is essential (see Figure 2).
Smelting furnaces used in precolonial Africa have been grouped into three broad
classes: bowl, low shaft, and high shaft types (van der Merwe 1980; Kense 1985;
Miller and van der Merwe 1994). These are merely broad categories and contain
variations within each. Bowl furnaces consisted of a semi-circular depression in the
ground lined with refractory materials. A variant of this type had a superimposed
short shaft aimed at providing high volumes and better draught when compared to
the ordinary bowl type (Miller and van der Merwe 1994). The low shaft furnace type
stood to about one metre above the ground and the diameter at the base varied (Kense
1985). The shaft acted as the combustion vessel and was insulating enough to promote
heat retention during smelting. Further distinctions have been made on these low
shaft furnaces between those that had a provision for slag tapping and those without
this feature (van der Merwe 1980). The third group mostly consisted of high shaft
furnaces that stood between 1.54 metres (m) above the ground. In contrast to the
bowl and low shaft varieties that were operated by forced draught, these huge
furnaces were universally powered by natural draught (van der Merwe 1980; Kense
Figure 2. Map of Africa showing the approximate distribution of furnace types. The map
was compiled using information from published sources up to 2008.
1985; Killick 1991). Significantly, this classification has no chronological implications

as will be discussed below.
When compared to furnaces, forges or smithing hearths consisted of very low
structures (Friede and Steel 1986). Generally, they were less massive when compared
to furnaces, with very thin walls. Yet, in other cases, hearths only consisted of a
fireplace without any superstructure (Cline 1937). Invariably, these were operated by
bellows.
That air was an indispensable variable in both indigenous smelting and smithing
of metal needs no emphasis. Primarily, this is because the air fuelled combustion,
which in turn generated the heat necessary for chemical reactions in the furnaces and
hearths to take place (Friede and Steel 1975). In smelting, the operation of bellows
was a fundamental skill because the rates of pumping had to be adjusted in line with
the stage at which the reduction process had reached. For instance, when additional
layers of charcoal were added, the blowing rate was also increased (Todd 1985; David
et al. 1989). Failure to achieve such a delicate balance potentially led to unsuccessful
smelts. Bellows were usually worked in pairs or multiple sets in order to provide a
continuous draught. Smithing was always carried out using bellows or simple blow
pipes.
In broad terms, two bellow types were used in precolonial Sub-Saharan

metallurgy (Frobenius et al. 1921; Cline 1937; Friede and Steel 1986; Bisson
2000). These are the bowl and bag bellows. Bowl bellows were made by attaching an
animal skin diaphragm to the top of solid bowl-shaped chambers. They can be
divided into pot (clay bowl) and drum (wooden bowl) bellows (Miller and van der
Merwe 1994). The most popular variant of drum and pot bellows had a stick
attached to the skin diaphragm (Kense 1985). Raising the stick up and down in a
consistent manner drove the air through an integral exit pipe into the tuyères. The
long sticks were used in a standing position, while in some instances shorter ones
allowed the operator to work from a squatting position (Friede and Steel 1986) (see
Figures 3 and 4).
Historically, clay pot bellows seem to have been made by men although there are
instances where they were made by women, as in the case of the Tsara of Ethiopia
(Haaland 2004). In this case, the female potters were wives of the smelters and could
only marry within their caste. Wooden bellows in comparison were almost
exclusively produced by male expert carvers from blocks of hardwood. The following
ethnographic descriptions from the early twentieth century are very useful in
explaining how wooden or drum bellows were made and/or operated:
A drum bellows is generally carved out of one single wooden block. The bellows consist of
two cylindrical bowl-like hollows (drums). A thin long air duct tube runs out of each of
these hollows. The upper opening of each carved-out bowl is usually covered with a piece of
skin or leather (tightly bound to the rim of the bowl). To the centre of this covering a long
stick is fastened which can be pulled up or pressed down alternatively to provide a
continuous airflow through the air duct into a short clay funnel connected to the furnace
interior. (von Luschan 1909, trans. cited in Friede and Steel 1986, 12)
Another useful ethnographic description is provided by Holub (1881), who witnessed

iron forging by a Mambari blacksmith amongst the Lozi of western Zambia in the
late nineteenth century:
Figure 3. Sketch of a Mambari smith showing bellows and other tools used in the smithing
process.
Figure 4. Holub’s sketch of bowl bellows used in western Zambia.
Going into a hut next day I found a Mambari doing blacksmiths’ work with some tools that
Masangu had lent him; he was sharpening mattocks, and kept his fire alive by means of a
pair of the bellows that are in ordinary use among the Marutse. These bellows were
somewhat peculiar, and may claim a detailed description. They had two compartments,
formed of circular boards covered with leather, and with an aperture in the sides; these were
alternately raised and lowered by handles, the air being forced into two wooden tubes that
ran parallel to each other into the two compartments; fixed into the ends of the wooden
tubes were two shorter tubes made of antelopes’ horns, but these, instead of running
parallel, converged in front, and met in a clay nozzle, which was applied to the fire (Holub
1881 (II), 234).
Figure 3 is a sketch made by Holub in 1876 of the bellows and other smithing tools
used by the craftsman mentioned in this text extract.
A variant of bowl bellows did not have sticks but had holes on the diaphragm,
which acted as valves, and this was used by the Dimi of Ethiopia. Such holes were
skilfully opened or closed in upward and downward thrusts by the operator. Many of
these seem to have been single drum bellows (Huntingford 1961) but were operated
as part of a series adding up to six. Another variant of the bowl type is known as the
concertina bellows. This sub-type resembled double bodied drum bellows with a
bigger size and capacious skin enclosing stacks of rings which were separated and
allowed to close together in upward and downward movements (Cline 1937, 105).
In contrast, and by their nature, bag bellows did not have any bowl. Instead, they
were fashioned from the skin of a complete animal, usually that of a goat or sheep
and in a few instances of a small antelope (Stayt 1931; Cline 1937; Kense 1985). At
one end there was a large opening to admit air and, at the other, a nozzle through
which it was forced. By comparison, it is quite interesting to note the close
similarities between the making of bag bellows in Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe in
the medieval period. For example, very precise instructions to make bellows from the
complete skin of a ram were provided in Theophilus Presbyter’s (Roger of
Helmarshausen’s?) treatise De Diversis Artibus (Theophilus 1979) sometime around
AD 1100 in medieval Europe. Back to Africa, the bag type was operated by hand to
force air into the exit pipes and into the furnaces through the tuyères, as with the case
with bowl bellows. Both the bag and the nozzle were tied to supports to hold them in
place. Bag type bellows were usually used in pairs.
Sometimes both bowl and pot bellows contained inlet valves that allowed the air
to be sucked into the furnace while in other cases valves did not exist. Since valveless
bellows relied on a loose fit between the bellows’ outlet and the tuyère to allow air to
be sucked in through this gap, they are generally seen as inefficient when compared
to the bellows with valves (Merkel 1990; Miller and van der Merwe 1994). That most
bellows used in precolonial Africa had no valves also made it difficult to measure
the volumetric outflow of air with certainty. Presumably, this has dissuaded many
researchers from tackling the issue of determining the volumes of air produced by
the valveless bellows. However, computational simulations may help in quantifying
the volumes of air produced by the bellows (see below).
Bellows were not the only means of supplying air into the furnaces and the Sub-
Saharan ethnographic record is replete with furnaces that were operated without
them (Cline 1937). Such furnaces were very large (between 1.54 m) and relied on
natural draught (see Figure 5). The operational principle of natural draught furnaces
was based on the fact that hot gases rising through the furnace sucked in the air
through the numerous tuyères incorporated into the bottom using the principle of
convection or the chimney effect (Rehder 1987; Killick 1991; Juleff 1996; Miller
1997; Tabor et al. 2005). Such furnaces could not be operated with bellows because
their mammoth size would have necessitated huge demands in terms of the labour
needed to pump bellows for the air to adequately circulate in the furnace (Cline 1937;
Killick 1990; Merkel 1990).
To date, we are not aware of studies that have compared and contrasted the
efficiency of bellows and natural draft as ways of providing air in furnaces. It would,
however, seem that both methods were effective, which is why some cultural groups
chose them, the specific reasons varying from situation to situation. Rehder (2000)
has performed some work on the natural draught furnaces used in Oyo, Nigeria, and
concluded that natural draught represented an effective way of air provision in pre-
industrial times (see also Bellamy and Habord 1904). Outside the African continent,
computational simulations of the flow of air inside the Sri Lankan natural draught
furnaces produced more or less similar results to those obtained by Rehder (Tabor
et al. 2005).
A spatial and historical distinction has been made between natural and forced
draught furnaces, although they were not exclusive and there is in fact a good deal of
overlap (Figure 2) (Frobenius et al. 1921; Cline 1937; Killick 1990). Ironically, some
natural draught furnaces were lit using the air from bellows, which were removed
after the fire had gained some strength (Cline 1937). It would seem that the decision
to use bellows or natural draught was influenced by other, more locally specific
Figure 5. Photograph of natural draught furnace from Malawi (courtesy of David Killick).
factors such as the duration of the smelt, labour demands in pumping bellows, scale
of output and organisation of production (Chirikure and Rehren 2006) and last, but
not least, topographical and meteorological conditions.
In pursuit of the elusive: chronology and distribution of furnace and bellow types in
Sub-Saharan Africa
From the previous evidence, it is evident that, with the exception of the natural draft
furnaces, bellows were used with bowl and low shaft furnaces. As such, it is
important to consider the distribution not only of furnace types but also of bellows
(see Figure 6). This will permit an assessment of any diachronic or temporal, and
spatial variations in the association between furnace types and bellows.
For some time it was thought that the typological classification of furnaces into
the simple bowl types, low shaft, and high shaft furnaces would provide chronological
information. For instance, it was assumed that because they were simple, bowl
furnaces and their variants were the earliest types used (van der Merwe 1980; Kense
1985). These, it was assumed, were then followed by the different versions of the low
shaft furnaces with the large natural draught furnaces being the latest. Whilst it is
clear that natural draught furnaces indeed appeared late when compared to bowl and
Figure 6. Map of Africa showing the approximate distribution of different bellows types.
The map was compiled based on published materials dating to December 2008.
low shaft furnaces (Killick 1991), the distribution of furnace types across Sub-
Saharan Africa reveals a very confusing position. According to Kense (1985) (see
Figure 5), simple bowl furnaces were widely scattered throughout Sub-Saharan Africa
with a dense concentration in central, eastern and southern Africa. Low shaft
furnaces in contrast were distributed from West Africa into southern and eastern
Africa, while the huge natural draught furnaces were largely limited to west, east and
central Africa and were not popular in regions that lie south of the Zambezi River
(Prendergast 1975; van der Merwe 1980; Kense 1985). This distribution is based
largely on the ethnographic picture; it shows the difficulty of linking the typology to
the chronology of furnaces. This is not helped by the fact that most archaeological
furnaces are collapsed and distinguishing natural draught from forced draught
furnaces, and bowl furnaces from low shaft ones with bowls underneath is
archaeologically very difficult (Killick 1991).
It is, however, generally agreed that the high natural draught furnaces probably
postdate AD 1000 (van der Merwe 1980; Miller and van der Merwe 1994). This leaves
the bowl and low shaft furnaces as the earliest types. If claims for the independent
invention of iron in Sub-Saharan Africa are to be believed, then it is tempting to
speculate that bowl furnaces were probably earlier than their low shaft counterparts
(see Andah 1979). Unfortunately, this is difficult to verify and what is clear is that
early forms of furnaces persisted through time as different groups of people mingled
with each other. The decision to use a specific type of furnace and the persistence of
earlier forms into recent times was likely based on a combination of factors, such as
cultural choice, scale of production and nature of the ore (Chirikure 2006).
At this juncture, it is important to consider the distribution and chronology of
bellow types and, thereafter, attempt to link them to furnace types. The distribution
of bowl and bag bellows in the ethnographic and historical records shows a degree of
spatial variation (Frobenius et al. 1921; Kense 1985; Friede and Steel 1986). To begin
with, let us examine the distribution of bowl bellows and their variants. According to
Cline (1937), the distribution of bowl bellows span from West Africa to eastern
Africa and southward to the Zambezi River (Figure 6). Importantly, they do not
extend far south of the Zambezi River where they are associated with some, but not
all, Tonga speaking communities. An association with so-called ‘Western Bantu’
speakers, or at least those influenced in some way by the Luba and Lunda peoples of
the Western Bantu matrilineal belt of central Africa, has been suggested (Burrett and
Chirikure 2008) but this is hard to substantiate. They also occur in West Africa and
co-occur in large areas of central East Africa. In addition, there is only a weak
spatial patterning in the use of either wooden drum or ceramic pot bellows both of
which were often used within the same community or by adjacent ones. Both bowl
bellow forms were used, for example, by the different client communities of the Lozi
state of western Zambia in the nineteenth century. Circular, wooden chambers
(drums) were favoured by the Mambunda (Holub 1881; Pinto 1881), while the Tolela
used clay bowls for this purpose (Gibbons 1897, 134). Local cultural choice seems to
have been the most important variable here.
The variant of bowl bellows known as the concertina type, on the other hand,
was only known from the mid-second millennium AD in Togo, West Africa; none are
known from southern and eastern Africa (Figure 6). Cline (1937) believes that these
latter bellows were a local innovation designed to power the very large furnaces used
amongst others by the Bassari of Togo. In terms of efficiency, concertina bellows
were much more effective in providing air resulting in a greater air to fuel ratio in the
Bassari furnaces and their innovation and use reflect a desire to increase output in a
specialist iron working community.
Bag bellows, on the other hand, were widely distributed in the Sub-Saharan
latitudes ranging from West Africa to southern Africa. However, they seem to have
been more common in some parts of West and East Africa, dominating all of
southern Africa with a near absence in the bowl dominated parts of Central Africa.
A historical association with so-called Eastern Bantu-speakers (sensu Huffman 1989)
seems possible. Yet the evidence is not conclusive. In West Africa, both bag and bowl
bellows often co-existed in the same or adjacent communities (Kense 1985, 22), while
among the Tonga of the Zambezi Valley both technologies were practised, although
interestingly only bag bellows have a traditional name mavuba (Syabbalo undated,
7071). This may reflect the historical contacts of these people and their selective
incorporation of the technologies of their more powerful neighbours the Lozi with
their bowl bellows and the Shona with their bag bellows.
What, if anything, are the chronological implications of this apparent distribution?
To answer this we need to remember that the physical evidence for bellows hardly
survives in the archaeological record. The earliest and best-known archaeological
bellows from Sub-Saharan Africa are dated to around AD 200 at Meroë in the Sudan.
Here, Shinnie (1985), 33) excavated a slag-tapping furnace that was surrounded by six
pots that had been used as bowls for bellows. In one instance, the tuyère was still in
position, connecting the pot bowl to the furnace. However, the Meroitic iron-smelting
process was largely influenced by developments in the Egyptian Nile Valley and has
been shown to have few similarities with the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa (Miller and
van der Merwe 1994).
Despite the scarcity of material traces for bellows in Sub-Saharan Africa, it has
been argued that bag bellows are a recent phenomenon when compared to the bowl
bellows. Cline (1937) contends that bag bellows only appeared with the advent of
Arabian influence in Africa. In East Africa, the bag bellows are said to have been
introduced early in the first millennium AD. Possibly, they were introduced to southern
Africa by the ‘Eastern Bantu’ speakers during their migration southward and
transformation of local communities at this time (Cline 1937; MacKenzie 1975).
This would explain why no bowl bellows are known in the southernmost areas of
Africa where the communities had neither direct history nor contact with the users of
bowl bellows. As for West Africa, the trans-Saharan trade would have seen the
introduction of bag bellows into that region. This distribution would also explain the
near absence of bag bellows from Central Africa where the earlier bowl bellows and
their variants remained prevalent. However, archaeological evidence is needed to
substantiate this claim. An alternative view is offered by Bisson (2000) who suggests
that the bag bellows were earlier, with the bowl form being developed within the Congo
Basin. Again, the perishable nature of bag bellows pre-empts much of this discussion.
Despite the evident difficulty of establishing an overall chronology for bellows and
furnaces, it is clear that local developments frequently took place over time. Several
hybrid bowl and bag bellows are known to have developed in different parts of Africa
(Cline 1937). The concertina bellows of West Africa therefore readily come to mind. It
is also worth noting that there is no clear and consistent association between the use
of bowl and bag bellows with bowl and low shaft furnaces. This would suggest a great
deal of historical technological borrowing between different groups of people.
Perhaps this somewhat confusing situation has to do with the relative efficiency of
different bellow types. It has been argued that bag bellows evolved out of the pot
bellows since they generated a greater volume of air (Mackenzie 1975), but whether
the variation in the specific local use of the two types of bellows was determined by
cultural choices or functional preferences is not known.
The making of bellows was an aged and gendered occupation to the extent that in
most societies it was the sole preserve of experienced mature males. Childs (2000)
shows how the man, known as rubumbi, was responsible for the manufacture of the
clay bowls and tuyères in marked contrast to domestic pots, which, like cooking,
were the preserve of women in Toro society. However, again, there is no consistency
across Africa and among the societies of the Highlands of Ethiopia; the making of
pots for bellows was done by the wife of the head smelter, a potter herself (Haaland
2004; Haaland et al. 2005).
Some mind games: on the efficiency of bowl and bag bellows

From the above it is clear that while there are instances of widely separated
communities using identical technology, there are others in which neighbouring
communities used distinct bellow and furnace types. This begs the question as to
why, therefore, there is no systematic diachronic and or synchronic patterning in the
distribution of bellows in Sub-Saharan Africa? This is not an easy question to
answer. Possibly this cultural diversity reflects differences in efficiency of the two
technologies, particularly with respect to the volume of air generated. This is a
critical factor to consider in metallurgy because there is a relationship between the
volume of air and the rates of combustion. We feel it is safe to assume that local
communities chose specific bellow types because of the relative advantages which
they presented in their metalworking and also to other pursuits that lay outside the
metallurgical domain, such as the need to save labour for other economic activities
(Chirikure and Rehren 2006).
It is important to consider some experiments that have been conducted with bag
and bowl bellows to further understand the issue of efficiency. In 1975, Friede and
Steel conducted a smelting experiment using a model of Zulu bag bellows. Although
the experiment was designed to capture other pyrometallurgical details, of particular
importance for this paper is the issue of bellows performance. During the process of
smelting, they measured the delivery of the air from the bellows into the furnaces
using flow metres. Their results showed that the volume of air pumped vacillated
between 60 to 90 l/per minute (at about 70 double strokes) when the bellows were
worked at medium speed (Friede and Steel 1975, 226). According to them, this
output seemed very low because the volume of each of the bellows found by mass of
water filling was five litres. They cited several reasons to explain this poor output.
Firstly, the low efficiency was likely caused by the poor craftsmanship executed by
the makers of the bellows, which were made by sewing together several skins,
whereas in the past bellow bags were made by pulling animal skins from the head of
the animal to the back in one piece resulting in the production of superior airtight
bags (Stayt 1931). Friede and Steel (1975) speculated that in the past, bag bellows
could readily provide in excess of 100 litres of air per minute. Lastly, the bellows
operators in this experimental work were inexperienced and this undoubtedly
compromised the output.
Turning to another part of Sub-Saharan Africa and to pot bellows, Todd (1985)
conducted an experimental reconstruction of iron-smelting among the Dimi of
Ethiopia. The Dimi smelting utilised six pot bellows with valves. The pots were fixed
permanently into the ground and goatskin diaphragms were attached to the top.
Each pot was operated by ‘one person placing both thumps in the hole raising to
admit air, then covering the hole with both hands to expel the air’ (Todd 1985, 92).
During the smelting process the blowing rates of ‘47 strokes/minute were maintained
continuously for 4 hours but were increased to 60 strokes/minute’ when additional
ore and charcoal were charged in the furnace (Todd 1985, 89).
Although we are limited in that we do not know the volume of the individual
Dimi pot bellow, it would appear when comparing these two experiments that the
Zulu bag bellows generated more air than the Dimi ones. Nonetheless this limitation
was compensated by having many more bellows, six in this instance. However, if
one considers Merkel’s (1990) experiments with New Kingdom Egyptian pot
bellows, which readily provided 350 litres of air per minute, it becomes clear
that pot bellows sometimes generated more air when compared to bag types. The
situation is inconsistent and ambiguous. Perhaps carefully controlled experiments
and numerical modelling may provide a better answer to this issue of the efficiency of
different bellow types.
However, in applying numerical modelling and simulations, several constraints
must be considered. The volume of delivered air cannot be calculated with
confidence as it depends on the final pressure applied during the end of each stroke
cycle. Since this final pressure is a function of the sucking conditions, which
themselves depend on the average pressure sustained in the bellows, as well as on the
temperature and relative humidity of the air, a comparison of the volumetric flow
rates of different kinds of bellows is only meaningful when measured under strictly
comparable external conditions. This apparent non-linear dependence of flow rate
on pressure, as well as pressure on displacement of the bellow’s diaphragm (see
Equation 3, Appendix), introduces numerical challenges in modelling attempts.

Furthermore, another restriction applies since the duct areas of pot bellows, bag
bellows and concertina bellows are geometrically not well defined, making standard
calculation methods subject to much ambiguity as they inherently rely on either
circular or rectangular ducts. This fact requires the introduction of conversion
factors that are hitherto unknown. Despite these generic limitations, calculations are
presented in the Appendix based on measured bellows volumina and air delivery
rates that provide insight into the efficiency of different types of bellows. In addition,
a general mathematical model of the dynamic behaviour of bellows is given (see
Equation 8, Appendix).
Diversity of bellow structure can thus be seen to have clear impacts on the issue
of efficiency in terms of the volume of air generated. Generally, whether a pot or bag
bellow was used, the efficiency through which air could be generated depended on
whether the bellows had valves or not (Merkel 1990). Valveless bellows consistently
produced less air when compared to those with valves.
Leaving aside the volume issue, other variables may have prompted pre-industrial
people to use different bellows. The skills and physical strengths of the operators
were surely an important aspect for combustion characteristics and easily controlled
the outcome. Furthermore, the amount of time needed to construct certain bellows,
their life span and, even more fundamentally, the size and nature of furnaces also
influenced people’s decisions to use one bellows type over another. The issue of
furnace type may have outweighed the volume of air generated in some cases. This is
because some furnaces were destroyed after individual smelts, and in most cases such
furnaces were powered by portable bellows with bag and drum bellows sometimes
preferred to pot bellows fixed in the ground. Thus, although pot bellows may have
provided more air, they may not have been used. Also, small furnaces required a
smaller volume of air so bellows with a smaller capacity could be used effectively just
as the concertina bellows were utilised with large furnaces because of their
voluminous capacity. These issues are addressed in the Appendix, which demon-
strates that the working of bellows was fundamentally based on the same principles.
Conclusion
While it is possible to plot the distribution of bellows and furnaces in the
ethnographic record, extending the ethnographic picture into the past encounters
severe obstacles, chief among them the perishable nature of the bellows. What is,
however, clear in both the archaeological and ethnographic contexts is that bellows
played an important role in indigenous African metallurgy. They generated the air
required for smelting and smithing. Nevertheless, the lack of any clear diachronic
and/or synchronic pattern with respect to their distribution suggests that a great deal
of technological borrowing and cross-pollination took place over millennia. What
determined whether one society chose to use a bag, drum or pot bellow would seem
to have depended on variables such as whether production was specialised or not,the
labour costs involved, risk levels and other factors outside their direct metallurgical
importance. There also seems to have been a persistence of tradition where groups
used the bellows to which they were accustomed. In future, it will be highly
important to carry out experiments with all types of bellows under strictly controlled
external conditions to better understand the ranges of volumetric air flow produced
by each type, thereby informing future discussions on efficiency in terms of air

generation.
Acknowledgements
Dr Caroline Robion translated the abstract into French. We extend our thanks to her. We also
thank Simon Hall, David Killick, Tim Maggs, Duncan Miller, Peter Mitchell, Thilo Rehren,
Vincent Serneels and two anonymous reviewers for sharing their ideas with us. Financial
assistance from the National Research Foundation of South Africa is acknowledged with
gratitude. Errors that remain should be however solely attributed to us.
Notes on contributors
Shadreck Chirikure is an archaeometallurgist based at the University of Cape Town in South
Africa. His research interests span the broad fields of the history of technology and indigenous
mining and metallurgy in Africa. His book Indigenous Mining and Metallurgy in Africa is
under review at Cambridge University Press.
Rob Burrett is an independent scholar based in Zimbabwe. His research interests cover the
Stone Age and the Iron Age. He runs a company specialising in cultural resources
management and heritage tourism.
Robert B. Heimann is an Emeritus Professor in Applied Mineralogy and Materials Science. He

has lectured at many prestigious universities in Germany and Canada. Robert has published
extensively on the properties and mineralogy of ceramics and the chemistry of glasses.
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Appendix: dynamic behaviour of bellows systems

The elasticity of bellows can be simply modelled as an ideal spring with spring
constant a (Figure 1, configuration A) according to Hooke’s law.
Under the assumption that the bellows are worked in such a way that they
expand and contract at a rate of about 1 double stroke/second, the product of air
mass and acceleration can be neglected, and the force balance for configuration A
can be written as:
F p×A a×x; (1)

where F is the applied force, p is the pressure inside the bellows, A is the working
area of the bellows, a is the dynamic stiffness (spring constant), and x is the height of
stroke, that is the displacement.
If the volume of the bellows is V A ×x, the volumetric flow rate of the suction
stage can be expressed by:
x1
dV=dt A×x×z×n; V n×z×
g x0
Ax dt (2)
where n is the number of strokes/min and z is the number of bellows. Combining (1)
and (2) yields,
p×V A×x×(a×x=A) a×x2 ; (3)

an equation attesting to the non-linear relation between pressure and displacement.
Figure 1. Modelling of airflow from a bellows (configuration A) and through a

tuyère with LT dT into the fuel/work bed within a primitive furnace
(configuration B).
Owing to the restriction of a slow process isothermal conditions prevail and the
validity of the ideal gas law pV mRT (R universal gas constant, 286.7 Nm/kgK)
can be assumed. Likewise the effect of air viscosity and heat transfer can be neglected
so that one deals with isentropic flow.
The time derivative of the ideal gas law yields,
d(p×V)=dtR×T×(dm=dt): (4)
Further, in pneumatic systems such as bellows, there is a pressure drop since the
presence of a valve flap or choke in the pipe connecting the bellows and the tuyères
(Figure 1, configuration A) restricts the air flow. Since the flow is usually turbulent
the resistance relation:
RB ×(dm=dt)2 RB ×q2m Dp(p1 p1 ) (5)

applies where RB is the resistance of bellows, qm is the mass flow rate of air in m3/
min, p1 is the pressure ahead of the restriction and p1* the pressure downstream of
the restriction (see Figure 1, configuration A). Equation (5) can be rewritten as
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
dm=dtqm (âRB)1 sign (p1 p1 ) abs(p1 p1 ): (6)
The time derivative of Equation (3) is
d (p×V)=dt d(a×x2 )=dt2a×x×(dx=dt): (7)
Combining Equations (1), (6) and (7) yields the final complete mathematical model
of the dynamic behaviour of a bellows system as:
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi
RT ax ax
2a×x×(dx=dt) pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi sign pi abs pi : (8)
RB A A
However, a much simpler expression that serves well to compare the efficiency of
different bellows types used in indigenous African metalworking relates to the
pneumatic capacitance C of bellows:
C dm=dp V=(R×T) A×x=(R×T): (9)
This is simply the pressure derivative of the ideal gas law. It describes the mass of air
delivered to a tuyère as a function of the pressure (force) exerted on the column of air
by compressing the bellows. Since A, R and T are given for a particular bellows, the
capacitance C is only a function of the height of stroke (displacement).
Applying the relations discussed above to two types of bellows, bag bellows of the
Zulu-type investigated by Friede and Steel (1975) and pot bellows of the Dimi of
Ethiopia described by Todd and Charles (1978), yields the following results:
Pneumatic capacitance
The volume of the bag bellows of Zulu-type is 5 L (5 ×103 m3). Since the air will not
completely be expelled during the downward stroke, a residual amount remains in
the bellows depending, among others, on the skill of the bellows man. Hence, the
volume must be multiplied by a factor of, say 0.8, that is the effective volume is only
4 ×103 m3. The temperature is assumed to be 305 K (32oC). Then the capacitance is
C 4.6 ×108 kgm2/N, that is a force of 1 N applied per m2 bellows area delivers an
amount of air corresponding to 4.6 ×10 8 kg. The measured average rate of air
delivery was 75 L/min or 75 ×103 m3/min (Friede and Steel 1975).
Pot bellows of the Dimi type have a diameter of 42 cm and are covered by a
goatskin diaphragm. Assuming hemispherical geometry of the pot the volume is
1.94 ×102 m3 (19 L), four times that of the Zulu-type. However, since the
construction of the bellows allows for only limited displacement x a volume factor
of 0.7 will be used to assess the pneumatic capacitance to be C 1.5 ×10 7 kgm2/N.
The measured average rate of air delivery was 50 L/min or 50×103 m3/min.
Pressure drop in the bellows

Calculation of the restriction RB of the bellows using Equation (6) yields RB 0.35
Nmin2/m2L2 (or 3.5 ×105 Nmin2/m8) for bag bellows of Zulu-type but 0.8 Nmin2/
m2L2 (8.0 ×105 Nmin2/m8) for pot bellows of Dimi-type. Solving Equation (6) requires
some assumption about the pressure p1 achieved in the compression stage of the
bellows. The value of p is ambient air pressure of 1.0 ×105 N/m2. As a lower limit p1 is
set to 2.0 ×105 N/m2, and then p1* will be 1.98 ×105 N/m2, assuming a conservative
pressure loss of 1% for both types of bellows. The value (p1 p1*) 2.0 ×103 N/m2 will
be used in Equation (6). This pressure drop is considered the sum of the restriction
due to valves, orifices and other constrictions, and the internal friction at the wall of
the pipe connecting the bellows and the tuyère.
Evidently the pneumatic resistance by transition of the pressurised air from the
bellows into the tuyère (see Figure 1, configuration B) is larger for the Dimi-type pot
bellows than the Zulu-type bag bellows by a factor of approximately 2. Hence the
bag bellows appear to work more efficiently than the pot bellows. This, however, is
compensated for by the use of six pot bellows connected to no less than 18 tuyères in
the Dimi furnace (Todd and Charles 1978). Pot bellows with leather diaphragms
without valves were considered inefficient by Merkel (1990).
Pressure drop in the tuye`res

The pressure drop through the tuyères can be derived from the nozzle equation
(Rehder 2000) as:
DpT (p1 p2 )(4:08×108 )×q2m =(n2 ×d4 ) (10)

2
where p1* is the effective pressure of air delivered by the bellows in N/m , p2 is the
exit pressure at the tip of the nozzle (Figure 1, configuration B), qm is the mass flow
rate of air as derived from Equation (6) in m3/min, n is the number of tuyères and d is
the diameter of the tuyères in mm. Note that Equation (10) is a more elaborate
version of Equation (5).
Equation (10) can be rewritten as:
DpT (p1 p2 )(2:52×108 )×q2m =(AT )2 (10a)

with (AT)2 total cross-sectional area of tuyères in mm2 and (qm/AT)space
velocity of air streaming through the tuyères. This equation indicates that the air
pressure p2 required for high heat production, and therefore the power of bellows
increases as the square of the space velocity.
If the tuyère is long compared to its diameter, another restriction factor RT has to
be considered. This, however, becomes only significant if the length of the tuyères LT
is more than twice its diameter dT. For the Zulu-type furnace described by Friede
and Steel (1975), LT is 0.3 m, and dT is 0.04 m. Hence the ratio LT/dT 7.5 2, and
the pressure drop DpT* must be multiplied by an empirical factor, in this case by 1.48
(Rehder 1987). Equation (10a) then yields a pressure drop due to tuyère resistance of
about 1.33 N/m2, much smaller than that calculated for the bellows resistance. Hence
the pressure drop due to resistance of a tuyère of the given dimension in a Zulu-type
furnace can safely be neglected compared to the bellows resistance.
Power requirements
The power demand to operate the bellows is (Rehder 2000)
W 0:0166×Dp×qm : (11)
For the Zulu-type furnace operated with a bag bellows, the total pressure drop is
about 2 ×103 N/m2. With an average value qm 75×10 3 m3/min the required
mechanical power is W 2.5 watts. For the Dimi-type furnace with an average
value qm 50 ×10 3 m3/min, the required power is W1.67 watts. According to
Reay (1977), an averagebuild man of 70 kg can generate power all day at a rate of
120 watts, so that furnaces of both types could be blown very easily with only one
man on bellows. The energy expenditures between 1.67 and 2.5 watts is well in
accordance with those calculated by Rehder (2000), Appendix 2) for the well-
documented bloomery furnace described by Tylecote et al. (1971) of 1.16 watts.
It should also be noted that according to Equation (11), the power requirement
W grows with the third power of qm (/Dp a q2m ) (Equations 5, 10) so that for larger
furnaces the required manpower increases dramatically. This would promote the use
of natural drought, that is wind-powered furnaces.
References
Friede, H.M. and R.H. Steel. 1975. Notes on Iron Age copper-smelting technology in the
Transvaal. Journal of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy 76: 21231.
Merkel, J. 1990. A reconstruction of copper smelting at Timna. In The ancient metallurgy of
copper, researches in the Arabah, 19591984, Vol. 2, ed. B. Rothernburg, 78122. London:
Institute for Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies.
Reay, D.A. 1977. History of man-powered flight. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Rehder, J.E. 1987. Natural draft furnaces. Archeomaterials 2: 4658.
Rehder, J.E. 2000. The mastery and uses of fire in Antiquity. Kingston: McGill-Queens
University Press.
Todd, J.A. and J.A. Charles. 1978. Ethiopian bloomery iron and the significance of inclusion
analysis in iron studies. Journal of the Historical Metallurgical Society 12: 6387.
Tylecote, R.F., J.N. Austin and A.E. Wraith. 1971. The mechanism of the bloomery process in
shaft furnaces. Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute 209: 34262.

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Beyond furnaces and slags: a review study of

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La combustion était au centre du processus de la métallurgie traditionnelle en

*Corresponding author. Email: shadreck.chirikure@uct.ac.za

1985; Killick 1991). Significantly, this classification has no chronological implications

In broad terms, two bellow types were used in precolonial Sub-Saharan

Another useful ethnographic description is provided by Holub (1881), who witnessed

Figure 4. Holub’s sketch of bowl bellows used in western Zambia.

Some mind games: on the efficiency of bowl and bag bellows

Equation 3, Appendix), introduces numerical challenges in modelling attempts.

by each type, thereby informing future discussions on efficiency in terms of air

Robert B. Heimann is an Emeritus Professor in Applied Mineralogy and Materials Science. He

Vogel, 132135. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.

Appendix: dynamic behaviour of bellows systems

F p×A a×x; (1)

p×V A×x×(a×x=A) a×x2 ; (3)

Figure 1. Modelling of airflow from a bellows (configuration A) and through a

RB ×(dm=dt)2 RB ×q2m Dp(p1 p1 ) (5)

Pressure drop in the bellows

Pressure drop in the tuye`res

DpT (p1 p2 )(4:08×108 )×q2m =(n2 ×d4 ) (10)

DpT (p1 p2 )(2:52×108 )×q2m =(AT )2 (10a)

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F p×A a×x; (1)

p×V A×x×(a×x=A) a×x2 ; (3)

RB ×(dm=dt)2 RB ×q2m Dp(p1 p1 ) (5)

DpT (p1 p2 )(4:08×108 )×q2m =(n2 ×d4 ) (10)

DpT (p1 p2 )(2:52×108 )×q2m =(AT )2 (10a)