(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved. Contact us for information about using this image.
label levels:
When Ephraim Upham went to Orlando Ware's Deerfield, Massachusetts, store to set up his household, his shopping list included a bellows. A bellows was a handy fireplace tool. It worked far more easily and efficiently than simply breathing on a fire to make it burn more strongly. The user pumped the bellows and the stream of air provided the oxygen that made the fire burn hotter. Ephraim paid eighty-three cents for the bellows similar to these he bought from the Ware store in 1803.