smoke blower

English

Alternative forms

smoke-blower, smokeblower

Noun

smoke blower (plural smoke blowers)

1. Any of various devices that use a powerful fan to clear an area of smoke.

   Coordinate term: smoke eater

   • 1930, The American Magazine, volume 109, page 78:

     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.

   • 1996, Jack E. Daugherty, Industrial Environmental Management: A Practical Handbook, page 534:

     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.

   1. Device to clear a gun turret on a naval ship of the smoke and gasses from discharging the gun.
      • 1902, United States. Navy Department. Bureau of Construction and Repair, Specifications for Building Twin-screw Armored Battle Ship, page 178:

        Each turret is to be provided with a smoke blower capable of delivering approximately 600 cubic feet of air at 13-oz. pressure;

      • 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:

        Electrically-Operated Auxiliaries: Ventilation, shunt wound; Total ventilation; Ammunition hoist, shunt wound; […] Smoke blower, shunt wound.

      • 1904 June, “The United States battleship Virgina”, in Marine Engineering, volume 9, number 6, page 250:

        Each turret also has a washing-out system for each gun and an electric smoke blower for blowing the smoke and gases from the bore of the guns.

   2. Device to clear the engine of a coal-powered locomotive of the smoke and cinders resulting from burning coal.
      • 1893 February, F.A., “Technical”, in Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers' Monthly Journal, volume 27, number 2, page 160:

        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.

      • 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. Nov. 30, 1914-Mar. 18, 1915, page 1914:

        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 would pump the water into the boiler.

2. (beekeeping) A small fire chamber with attached bellows used to blow smoke on a hive to pacify the bees before the beekeeper works on it.
   • 1921, Cornelia Meigs, The Windy Hill, page 21:

     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.

   • 1944, Alan Marshall, These are My People, page 192:

     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.

   • 1988, R. L. Skrabanek, We're Czechs, page 41:

     Armed with a smoke blower, he was good at capturing the bees.

3. A diagnostic tool that blows smoke through pipes or channels.
   • 1990, The American Midland Naturalist - Volumes 123-124, page 362:

     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).

   • 2003, Operation and Maintenance of Wastewater Collection Systems, page 245:

     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.

   • 2009, Water Environment Federation, Existing Sewer Evaluation and Rehabilitation MOP FD- 6, 3e, page 36:

     The testing is conducted by introducing a nontoxic liquid smoke or candle to the collection system and forcing smoke through the main line and service lines with a portable smoke blower.

   • 2021, Mohammad Najafi, Sanjiv Gokhale, Trenchless Technology, page 72:

     The smoke blower is set up at an open maintenance hole.

4. One who blows smoke; a liar or bullshit artist.
   • 1981, Maurice F. Villeré, Transactional Analysis at Work, page 98:

     The smoke blower is the b.s. artist or great pretender par excellence.

   • 1997, Jules Bonavolonta, Brian Duffy, The Good Guys: How We Turned the FBI 'Round Q and Finally Broke the Mob, page 98:

     At first, DePenta seemed like just another smoke blower.

   • 2002, Julie-Allyson Ieron, Staying True in a World of Lies, page 135:

     But, knowing that, don't blow smoke, either, because I will find it and then I will consider you a 'smoke blower.'

5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see smoke,‎ blower.; A person who blows smoke, especially one who blows smoke rings.
   • 1955, Max Wylie, Clear Channels, page 25:

     The most heinous cigarette smoke blower, the No. 1 criminal in this line, is Arthur Godfrey, who is in the hire of Chesterfield.

See also

• (liar or bullshitter): smoke and mirrors