Metallurgy appeared in China 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. After entering the Iron Age in the 5th century BC, ironware 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, and blasting technology is an indispensable part of it. The blasting technology of ancient Chinese metallurgical machinery has experienced a development from intermittent blasting to continuous blasting, and the blasting equipment has developed from leather bellows to wooden fans and piston-type wooden bellows, during which horse rafts and water rafts have also appeared. The development of blasting equipment is not only an important part of the progress of iron smelting technology, but also a kind of mechanical technology is affected by the overall level of mechanical technology. China's iron smelting machinery has shown a unique development context under the combined effect of multiple factors such as social politics, economy, and technical level.
Blast technology is to blow a certain pressure of air into the furnace to make the fuel fully burn, increase the furnace temperature, and improve the smelting efficiency. Blast equipment is the material basis for the implementation of blasting technology. Early metallurgy may use natural wind, and later developed into forced blasting with the demand for high temperature. The earliest instruments used for forced blasting were fans and blowpipes (橐). The copper smelting crucible furnace fragments found in Niuheliang, Lingyuan County, Liaoning Province are typical archaeological evidence of blowpipe blasting. A ceramic animal-headed blowpipe was also found at the Dajing Ancient Copper Mine Site in Linxi County, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia (Xiajiadian Upper Culture, about 2700-2900 years ago). These discoveries show that relatively primitive blasting equipment had already appeared in the early Bronze Age. According to existing archaeological excavation materials, my country had used smelting equipment with a furnace and four blowers as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty. In addition, from the large number of bronze artifacts unearthed from the Shang and Zhou dynasties and their technological level, it is speculated that there should have been a relatively primitive blasting device at that time, but whether this blasting device was a mechanical device remains to be further verified. The real iron smelting blasting mechanical device should have developed with the progress of iron smelting technology. The concept of machinery appeared during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. "Zhuangzi·Outer Chapter·Heaven and Earth" records what Zigong said: "There is a machine ("machine" is a kind of water-drawing tool). Here, a hundred fields are flooded in one day, with very little effort and great results." "Han Feizi·Difficulties 2" says: "Examine the terrain, the advantages of boats, cars, and machinery, use less effort, achieve great results, and then bring in more." That is to say, the ancients believed that machinery is a kind of equipment that "uses less effort and achieves more results." It is generally believed that machinery should include three parts: power device, transmission device, and working machine. If this is used to measure the blowing machine, the earliest one should be the leather bellows, followed by water row, wooden fan, piston-type wooden bellows, etc. It is not difficult to see that from the initial leather bellows to the later horse row, water row, wooden fan, and wooden bellows, its mechanical structure and mechanical motive force show a development trend from simple to complex and then to miniaturization and simplification. The reason for such characteristics is determined by the social background at that time, especially the national system and economic development.