Cannons in the Canon 2a: Bellows-Mender

Topic: Cannons in the Canon 2a: Bellows-Mender

1. Verified Sourced Facts

• No verified sourced facts have been isolated in this packet yet; current value is mainly as a source map or lead packet.

2. Ken Feinstein Twitter and Blog Information

• A Ken Feinstein blog post dated 25 Nov. 2018 states:

“I found an example of bellows mending!”

• The same post cites a 1537-8 record:

“To the said John Houghe, organmaker, for mending a pair of bellows, 5s.”

• The same post cites a 1553 record:

“payed to Ihon howe for mendynge the great organs & mendynge the bell'owes”

• The same post cites a 1559 record including:

“for tow new skyns ... for the bellowes”

• The same post states:

“In Midsummer Night's Dream, typically dated to 1595/1596, a character is introduced as Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.”

• The same post quotes the Wikipedia explanation:

“Flute's name, like that of the other mechanicals, is metonymical”

• The same post states:

“Searching the OED gives some more context.”

• The same post cites Robert Greene:

“the sixt was a bellows mender”

• The same post states:

“giant bellows were necessary to run blast furnaces”

• The same post quotes a later ironworks description including:

“bellow-makers”

• The same post quotes Florio:

“manticciaro, a bellowes maker”

• British History Online confirms one of the church-organ examples cited by the blog: in the 1553 St Mary at Hill churchwardens' accounts, payment was made to John Howe for mending the great organs, the bellows, and the little organs.

• Folger Digital Texts confirms the play-side fact that Francis Flute is identified as bellows-mender in A Midsummer Night's Dream. This verifies the Shakespeare wording, not the industrial interpretation.

3. Citations

• Feinstein, Ken. “Cannons in the Canon #2a: Bellows-Mender.” kenfeinstein.blogspot.com, 25 Nov. 2018, https://kenfeinstein.blogspot.com/2018/11/cannons-in-canon-2a-bellows-mender.html. Local preservation: blog_cannons2a_bellows_mender_2018-11-25.md.
• Littlehales, Henry, ed. “Churchwardens' accounts: 1553.” The Medieval Records of A London City Church St Mary At Hill, 1420-1559. London, 1905. British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/early-eng-text-soc/vol128/pp394-396.
• Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Folger Digital Texts PDF, https://www.folgerdigitaltexts.org/PDF/MND.pdf.
• cannons_in_the_canon_blast_furnaces.md, related packet.

4. Evidence Images

5. Notes on Access

• This is a lead packet, not a primary-source packet.
• The preserved post mixes archival quotations, lexicographical context, and interpretive application to A Midsummer Night's Dream.
• The organ, OED, Greene, Florio, and play-side witnesses should be cited directly before this packet is treated as standalone evidence.
• Web audit result: the bellows-mender phrase itself is verified in the play, and at least one early record of bellows-mending is verified through BHO. The leap from Flute to blast-furnace technical knowledge remains interpretive and needs stronger industrial-bellows controls.