How to Make a Simplified Blower Connected to a Furnace From Scratch In the Wild

Primitive Technology demonstrates how to make a simplified blower connected to a furnace from scratch using only materials found in the wild. He built a more elaborate blower and furnace last year.

The purpose of this project was to test a simplified blower design connected to a furnace. I purposely did this to show that people in most natural environments should be able to replicate this design without difficulty. This blower differed from the previous one in several ways to simplify the construction method.

Firstly, the impellor was simply a stick as a rotor with a 40 cm wide rectangle of bark tied into a split in its end with a bark fibre cordage. A stone with a pit carved into it acted as a socket for the lower half of the rotor to spin in. If spun in the dirt the rotor can drill down and the position of the impellor can reach ground level causing the blades to bump into rocks and dirt. (read more)