Bellows

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A large bellows creates a mushroom cloud at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, California.

For the writer, see Saul Bellow. For the military reservation in Hawaii, see Bellows Air Force Station.

A bellows is a device for delivering pressured air in a controlled quantity to a controlled location. At its most simple terms, a bellows is a container which is deformable in such a way as to alter its volume, and has an outlet or outlets where one wishes to blow air. A bellows differs from a fan in that it exerts much greater control in where it delivers the air. The bellows can also refer to a length or direction adjustable tubular element; in collapsible devices or applications that require as good sealing as possible, or that cannot accommodate other methods of achieving those aims.

[edit] Metallurgical processes

Several metallurgical processes require such heat that they could only be developed after the invention of the bellows.

[edit] Musical instrument

In musical instruments, such as the reed organ, the bellows is often employed as a substitute or regulator for air pressure provided by the human lungs.

[edit] Photographic bellows

The bellows is the pleated expansible part that rides on an optical bench in a large- or medium format film camera. The bellows provides a flexible dark enclosure between the film plate and the lens plate. This way you can change the angle the light hits the film providing a way to correct for vanishing points and perspective. There are 2 common kinds of bellows: Bag bellows, which are for when the focal length is lower than an accordion bellows', and accordion bellows which can extend farther than bag bellows.

[edit] See also

sylphon for uses of metal bellows in experimental physics and engineering.

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