smoke blower

Noun

smoke blower (plural smoke blowers)

1. Any of various devices that use a powerful fan to clear an area of smoke.
   • He is also the inventor of a very efficient smoke blower, which sucks smoke out of a room at the rate of one thousand feet per minute.1930, The American Magazine, volume 109, page 78
   • You can use an existing local exhaust hood in the room to prevent buildup of CO2 concentration or use a smoke blower exhausting the room.1996, Jack E. Daugherty, Industrial Environmental Management: A Practical Handbook, page 534
   1. A device to clear a gun turret on a naval ship of the smoke and gasses from discharging the gun.
      • Each turret is to be provided with a smoke blower capable of delivering approximately 600 cubic feet of air at 13-oz. pressure;1902, United States. Navy Department. Bureau of Construction and Repair, Specifications for Building Twin-screw Armored Battle Ship, page 178
      • Electrically-Operated Auxiliaries: Ventilation, shunt wound; Total ventilation; Ammunition hoist, shunt wound; […] Smoke blower, shunt wound.1904 November, Lieutenant Commander E. H. Scribner, “United States Armored Cruiser Colorado”, in Journal of the American Society of Naval Engineers, volume 16, number 4, page 1122
   2. A device to clear the engine of a coal-powered locomotive of the smoke and cinders resulting from burning coal.
      • The main object of designing this smoke blower is to avoid the setting of fires and also to avoid the throwing of cinders onto the train, and no fires have been set by an engine equipped with this apparatus, and the trains are perfectly free from dirt, no cinders whatever being thrown.1893 February, F.A., “Technical”, in Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers' Monthly Journal, volume 27, number 2, page 160
      • I have fired one locomotive, a switch engine, that had a very large blower on, and the injector was working pretty fair, and with this blower working and the engine working , I had to be on the job all the time; the smoke blower was working hard, and it used the water about as fast as this injector...1915, Board of Arbitration in the Controversy between the Western Railroads and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, Testimony nos. 1-72....
2. A small fire chamber with attached bellows used to blow smoke on a hive to pacify the bees before the beekeeper works on it.
   • she had dark hair and quick, brown eyes, her cheeks were very pink, and one of them was decorated with a black smudge from the smoke blower.1921, Cornelia Meigs, The Windy Hill, page 21
   • The hollow limbs of old gums often sheltered a hive, and he always carried an axe and a smoke blower when I drove him through the bush.1944, Alan Marshall, These are My People, page 192
3. A diagnostic tool that blows smoke through pipes or channels.
   • Burrow entrance mapping, using a smoke blower, suggested that hibernacula more than 15 m apart were not within the same burrow system, although burrow systems covering more than 20 m were recorded (Young, 1988).1990, The American Midland Naturalist - Volumes 123-124, page 362
   • At the start of the operation, the smoke blower is located over the manhole (Figure 5.36) and the ends of the pipes plugged at the next adjacent manholes.2003, Operation and Maintenance of Wastewater Collection Systems, page 245
4. One who blows smoke; a liar or bullshit artist.
   • The smoke blower is the b.s. artist or great pretender par excellence.1981, Maurice F. Villeré, Transactional Analysis at Work, page 98
   • At first, DePenta seemed like just another smoke blower.1997, Jules Bonavolonta, Brian Duffy, The Good Guys: How We Turned the FBI 'Round Q and Finally Broke the Mob, page 98
5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see smoke, blower; A person who blows smoke, especially one who blows smoke rings.
   • The most heinous cigarette smoke blower, the No. 1 criminal in this line, is Arthur Godfrey, who is in the hire of Chesterfield.1955, Max Wylie, Clear Channels, page 25