The Detroit times., 1911-05-16
NEW TOOL BORES
SQUARE HOLE
Young German Mechanic Accom-
plishes Feat Which Many Others
Had Failed To Do.

CHICAGO. May 15.-In a big ma
chine shop here the writer and an
artist saw a man bore "a square hole
in a piece OF steel with Bit in u fast
revolving lathe.
For years and years-from the time
when the first man began scouting
around for perpetual motion ma
| chine-men have tried TO bore square
holes. Tried and tried. and still the
/ holes always turned out round. Then
they said II couldn't be done.
But they reckoned without the bull.
dos grit OF the German mechanic. a
young man, just out OF school Carl
Philgus was foreman in a machine
shop. He watched the workingmen
chiseling and filing out square holes
great waste of time and muscle.
He set about to make the drill that
would bore a square hole. That was
five years ago. First he studied II all
out. That took many months. He
saw that regular rotation would
produce nothing else but round
hole. but by moving drill which II
self was off-center, in a master guide
drilled, forcing II to travel constantly
out OF the center axis he figured that
q square hole identical with the move
ment OF the master guide could be
cut
Mechanically Philgus dreamed IL;
figuring and figuring. Then no put
his dream into steel, and kept on
changing and changing. overcoming
defect here and an error there. until
he squared the circle OF the hole"
1T is all 20 very simple" said
Philgus. II can't see how il was that
il wasn't invented years before | was
born"
One wouldn't place this young Ger
man in the inventor class at all. He's
very youthful looking. with just that
touch OF the dandy typical OF Se Ger
man student of the great German uni
versities. His wisp OF mustach
gives him slight resemblance TO the
German crown prince.
AT first he didn't start out TO be
the man 70 bore the first square hole.
His besetting ambition was TO be an
artist.
For a year was In Paris" he said,
"and there I loved my art. but on art
would starve for so long; In the ma
chine shop paydays are regular.
And now mechanics Is dear as the
art was" enthusiastically exclaimed
the inventor.
Then why not clear away other
impossibility? Start the perpetual mo-
ton wheels going round"
"Ah. perpetual motion is not pos
u. ta 90 hot them
bughouse people ITO waste their time
on that Friction and gravitation are
against man. gave that up long
ago"
Then to show that the square hole
could be bored, Philgus put one or MS
drills into an ordinary chuck lathe ana
turned on the power, the drill began
boring its way by a rotary motion
Just like any other drill, through iron,
though aluminium. through copper, and
through wood. The lathe turned so
fast the tool looked as though 1t went
round on a center, but the master
guide was sliding 1t around and the
hole was going down with perfectly
square corners and smooth sides and
bottom.
The inventions Is called the Radical
angular drilling attachment, and con-
sists of a special drill OF triangular
shape rotating in master guide In
shape OF a chuck. II can be fitted TO
the spindle OF an ordinary lathe or
milling machine and is fastened TO the
spindle head by means Of an ordinary
face plate. Drills are made for any
sized hole, either square. triangular
or hexagonal II Is a German inven-
ton and has just been brought to Am
erica by the inventor.