Blaze

[A. S. blase, blæse, a torch; 0. Ger. blechazan, to shine forth, to glitter.] A shining forth; a glittering; glare; expanded light; flame; the stream of light and heat from any body when burning. "The main blaze of it is past; but a small thing would make it flame again." - Shaks. -Wide diffusion of a report; that which shines and spreads widely. For what is glory but the blaze of fame?" - Milton . -A white mark on a horse's forehead; -also a mark made on trees in a forest, for identification of a route. -0. n. To shine forth to flame; to send forth or show a bright and expanded light. - To be conspicuous. v. a. To cause to shine forth; to spread, as news; to make public far and wide. - To set a white mark on a tree. Blazer, n. One who blazes. Blazing, p. a. Flaming; emitting bright flame or light. Publishing far and wide. Blaz'ing-star, n. A comet. Blaʼzon, v. a . [Fr. blasonner .] To blaze abroad; to spread, proclaim, or publish far and wide. - To display or set forth conspicuously. - To adorn; to embellish. To explain the figures on armorial ensigns. -v. n. To blaze; to make a brilliant figure; to shine. blast blown from a bellows, or by means of fans. A smith's-forge is a blast-furnace on a small scale. B. -F.s are used principally for smelting iron ores, and consist e entially of a long narrow funnel inverted upon another shorter funnel, the whole being built of solid masonry. They are usually 50 feet high by 15 feet in diameter at the largest part. At the bottom of the lower cone is a cylindrical hole, from which lead the tuyères , or blast-pipes, and the channel for the pa age of the melted slag, which rises on the top of the metal and overflows. At the lowest part is the tap-hole for drawing off the melted metal. At the top is a gallery for the conveyance of fuel and ore. The B.-P. being lighted with coal, the roasted ore, combined with a flux of limestone, is thrown in; upon this is thrown another layer of coal, and so on; as the fuel burns away, the ma sinks, and is replenished with fuel, flux, and ore from the top. - See HOT BLAST, and IRON.