Metallurgy already appeared in China 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. After entering the Iron Age in the 5th century BC, iron tools became an important factor in promoting historical progress and once became a symbol of the level of productivity development. Iron smelting is a combination of multiple technologies, of which blast technology is an integral part. The metallurgical machinery blasting technology in ancient my country has experienced the development from intermittent blasting to continuous blasting, and the blasting equipment has developed from leather rafts to wooden fans and piston-type wooden bellows, during which horse rows and water rows also appeared. The development of blast equipment is not only an important part of the progress of iron smelting technology, but also as a kind of mechanical technology is affected by the overall level of mechanical technology. China's iron smelting machinery has shown a unique development trend under the combined influence of various factors such as social politics, economy, and technological level.
Air blast technology is to blow a certain pressure of air into the furnace to fully burn the fuel, increase the furnace temperature, and improve the smelting efficiency. Blowing equipment is the material basis for the implementation of blowing technology. Early metallurgy may have used natural wind, which later evolved into forced air as the demand for high temperatures increased. The earliest instruments used for forced air blowing were fans and blowpipes. The copper-smelting crucible furnace fragments discovered in Niuheliang, Lingyuan County, Liaoning Province are typical archaeological evidence of blowpipe blowing. The Dajing ancient copper mine site in Linxi County, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia (Upper Xiajiadian Culture, about 2700-2900 years ago) Year), a ceramic animal-headed blower tube was also discovered. These findings indicate that primitive blowing equipment appeared in the early Bronze Age. According to the existing archaeological excavation materials, our country has been using smelting equipment with one furnace and four blowers as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty. In addition, it is inferred from the large number of bronzes unearthed from the Shang and Zhou dynasties and their technological level that there should have been a relatively primitive blowing device at that time. However, whether this blowing device is a mechanical device remains to be further verified. The real iron-smelting blowing mechanical device should have been developed along with the progress of iron-smelting technology. The concept of machinery appeared during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. "Zhuangzi, Waipian, Heaven and Earth" records what Zigong said: "There is a machine ("machine" is a tool for drawing water). Here, a hundred fields can be soaked in one day, with little effort but much merit. "Han Feizi·Nan Er" said: "Based on the terrain, the advantages of boats, carts, and machinery, if you use less force and achieve greater results, you will gain more." That is to say, the ancients believed that machinery is an instrument that "uses less force and produces more work". It is now generally believed that machinery should include three parts: power device, transmission device, and working machine. If we measure the blowing machinery in this way, the earliest one is the leather blower, followed by water drains, wooden fans, piston-type wooden bellows, etc. It is not difficult to see that from the initial leather raft to the later horse and water rafts to wooden fans and wooden bellows, its mechanical structure and mechanical driving force have shown a development trend from simplicity to complexity to miniaturization and simplification. The reason for such characteristics was determined by the social background at that time, especially the national system and economic development.