Iron-Mine Bellows and Galley Firearms
A leather-less Brescia bellows with galley weapons: a lead-filing blowpipe, a bladed multi-shot haft, a wheel of scoppietti
Faint sketches accompany four notes on a bellows and on galley weapons. At the top a large apparatus records the single-piece leather-less bellows used at the Brescia iron mine, whose air enters through a little window n as it rises and escapes through pipes as it falls. Below are a galley blowpipe (soffione) charged with lead filings so as to hurl molten lead far, a hafted galley weapon with three blades and three small guns, and a wheel full of scoppietti.
On this page
Galley blowpipe firing molten lead
The soffione for a galley is 1 and 1/2 braccia long and one eighth thick, its powder mixed with lead filings against which few things hold. By the weight of the molten lead it throws quite far.
Hafted galley weapon with three blades and guns
A shafted galley arm carries three cutting edges together with three small guns (scoppietti).
Wheel full of small guns
A cylinder with a handle is drawn as a wheel packed full of scoppietti.
Leather-less bellows of the Brescia iron mine
At Brescia's iron mine the bellows are of one piece, that is, without leather. When raised the air enters through its little window n, and when lowered the air escapes through the pipes.