airshaftn.
/ˈɛːʃɑːft/, /ˈɛːʃaft/, U.S. /ˈɛrˌʃæft/ 1. A straight passage (usually vertical) for the admission of air into a mine or tunnel.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > mining equipment > [noun] > ventilation equipment
air machine1720
fire pan1730
ventilator1743
airshaft1753
air-box1777
screen1854
screen cloth1868
1665 H. Oldenburg in R. Boyle Corr. 4 July (2001) II. 492 The working (of)..Mines without Air-shafts.
1692 J. Ray Wisdom of God (ed. 2) i. 69 By the sinking of an Air-shaft the Air hath liberty to circulate.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. (at cited word) The damps..make it necessary to let down air-shafts.
1789 H. L. Piozzi Observ. Journey France I. 196 One of the natives..made a sort of mine, or airshaft.
1855 F. Overman Treat. Metall. (ed. 3) i. i. 36 It is advantageous to enter the vein at one end and have the air-shaft at the other end.
1877 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 159 The pumps will be placed in the air-shaft, which has been retimbered since the fire.
1907 Times 5 Oct. 9/6 The remaining miners were brought out of the pit by the air shaft.
1965 G. Jones Island of Apples ii. iii. 81 But Pantglas was a fine place to go to, there were plenty of woods there, and a bottomless air shaft, and a couple of stagnant ponds, and an old tunnel with an echo.
1997 Sight & Sound Jan. 35/4 Dashing to the control room, he succeeds in persuading his ex-colleague..to let him try to enter the tunnel via the airshafts.
2. A shaft for ventilating a building or room.
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the world > matter > gas > air > fresh air > [noun] > supplying fresh air or ventilation > ventilator > passage, shaft, duct, or pipe
funnel1555
ventiduct1615
ventoso1698
air pipe1748
ventilating tube1754
ventilation-pipe1823
airshaft1846
through-draught1852
duct1884
1846 Times 13 Apr. 5/2 What blocks up the windows?—Dr. Reid's airshafts.
1889 Fed. Reporter (1980) 40 692 The room was well ventilated by air-shafts and an upward draught over the boilers.
1929 U.S. Board Tax Appeals Rep. 13 252 The tenement houses..had no air shafts.
1974 G. Paley Enormous Changes at Last Minute (1979) 16 You could hear it up and down the air shaft, the singing from her kitchen.
2006 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 19 Mar. xiv. 13 [The fire] spread quickly through the airshaft..and burned through to the first floor.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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