AIRING-STAGE. A wooden platform, on which gunpowder is aired and dried.
AIR-JACKET. A leathern garment furnished with inflated bladders, to buoy the wearer up in the water. (See [Ayr].)
AIR-PIPES. Funnels for clearing ships' holds of foul air, on the principle of the rarefying power of heat.
AIR-PORTS. Large scuttles in ships' bows for the admission of air, when the other ports are down. The Americans also call their side-ports by that name.
AIR-PUMP. An apparatus to remove the water and gases accumulating in the condenser while the engine is at work.
AIR-SCUTTLES. The same as air-ports.
AIR-SHAFTS. Vertical holes made in mining, to supply the adits with fresh air. Wooden shafts are sometimes adopted on board ship for a similar purpose.
AIRT, or Art. A north-country word for a bearing point of the compass or quarter of the heavens. Thus the song—
"Of a' the airts the wind can blaw,
I dearly love the west."
AIRY. Breezy.