Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Bellows \Bel"lows\, n. sing. & pl. [OE. bely, below, belly,
bellows, AS. b[ae]lg, b[ae]lig, bag, bellows, belly. Bellows
is prop. a pl. and the orig. sense is bag. See {Belly}.]
An instrument, utensil, or machine, which, by alternate
expansion and contraction, or by rise and fall of the top,
draws in air through a valve and expels it through a tube for
various purposes, as blowing fires, ventilating mines, or
filling the pipes of an organ with wind.
{Bellows camera}, in photography, a form of camera, which can
be drawn out like an accordion or bellows.
{Hydrostatic bellows}. See {Hydrostatic}.
{A pair of bellows}, the ordinary household instrument for
blowing fires, consisting of two nearly heart-shaped
boards with handles, connected by leather, and having a
valve and tube.
Hydrostatic \Hy`dro*stat"ic\, Hydrostatical \Hy`dro*stat"ic*al\,
a. [Hydro-, 1 + Gr. ? causing to stand: cf. F. hydrostatique.
See {Static}.]
Of or relating to hydrostatics; pertaining to, or in
accordance with, the principles of the equilibrium of fluids.
The first discovery made in hydrostatics since the time
of Archimedes is due to Stevinus. --Hallam.
{Hydrostatic balance}, a balance for weighing substances in
water, for the purpose of ascertaining their specific
gravities.
{Hydrostatic bed}, a water bed.
{Hydrostatic bellows}, an apparatus consisting of a
water-tight bellowslike case with a long, upright tube,
into which water may be poured to illustrate the
hydrostatic paradox.
{Hydrostatic paradox}, the proposition in hydrostatics that
any quantity of water, however small, may be made to
counterbalance any weight, however great; or the law of
the equality of pressure of fluids in all directions.
{Hydrostatic press}, a machine in which great force, with
slow motion, is communicated to a large plunger by means
of water forced into the cylinder in which it moves, by a
forcing pump of small diameter, to which the power is
applied, the principle involved being the same as in the
hydrostatic bellows. Also called {hydraulic press}, and
{Bramah press}. In the illustration, a is a pump with a
small plunger b, which forces the water into the cylinder
c, thus driving upward the large plunder d, which performs
the reduced work, such as compressing cotton bales, etc.