Blue cast iron device set into the ground about 18" high with a wheel & handle?

H

hoppy

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When we bought an old farm workers cottage there was and still is a blue cast iron device set into the ground ,its about 18inches high with a wheel with a handle its at the side of the large hearth an we assume its some kind of bellows, any ideas??? sorry if this is the wrong forum!
 
Has it two rollers? An old clothes Mangle? Used to be one in my grannys similarly old stone cottage!
 
Check out one of the architectural salvage websites and see if there is anything similar.

Or ask the former owners.
 
What is the chimney like - is it maybe something that was used to adjust airflow or something like that?
 
Sounds to me like what we would call a 'blower'. You rotate the large wheel using the handle. A leather strap (long lost presumably) goes around the large wheel and also a small wheel just above floor level. The small wheel is the exposed part of an inbuilt fan, which pushes an airflow through an underfloor pipe/tunnel and up through a grate under the fire. It was used to get a fire started or to give it a good kick up the This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language.
 
Buy a leather strap , long enough to go around both wheels , and it should still work .

They were popular up to the 1950's , but died out soon later . Would have been used in times , when Irish kitchens had to use open fires to do all the cooking .

Electricity took over in the 60's
 
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