Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1918-05-30
History In Tools.


the development of tools DR.. W. M.
Flinders Petrie regrets that the story
Of the mechanical aids of human his
tory has been so neglected. Thous-
andS have described the sculptures
of the Parthenon, yet no one has
mention the tools that carved those
fluted columns. We naturally sup
pose that our present-day tools have
far better forms than those OF past
ages. According to DR.. Petrie, the
forms OF the chisel were perfected
twenty-five hundred years ago, and
beauty OF workmanship in bronze-age
chisel has never been exceeded. The
use Of saws and crown drills with fixed
teeth of corundum or gems stones, for
cutting quartz rocks, was the regular
practice in Egypt six thousands years
ago, and in Greece four thousand
years ago. The cores produced were so
perfect and clean-cut that any modern
engineer would be proud to turn out
such good work with the best diamond
drills. The saws were over eight feet
long, and cut blocks of granite seven
and a half feet long. That splendid
work was quite forgotten the Romans
did not use such tools, and some
thousands of years passed before the
same tools were reinvented fifty years
ago.
The carpenters saw was at first
merely a blade roughly hacked on the
edge by 4500 B. C. it had regular
teeth, sloping equally both ways; by
900 B. c. the Italians gave rake to
the teeth to make them cut in one
direction, instead of merely scraping as
before No ancient saw, however,
made a kerf wider than the thickness
of the blade we do not know when
the saw that makes a wider kerf was
invented, but it was some time in the
Middle Ages. The Egyptians used a
push saw as the earliest form the
pull saw was the only one in the West
and the Roman world. The push saw
came back into use few centuries ago
although the pull saw in a frame is
still universal in the East The world
did without shears for ages, cutting
its cloth with a rounded-blad knife.
About 400 B. G. the mechanical genius
of Italy invented shears, which in two
or three centuries more were fitted to
the fingers, and so became scissors
The "snufferS" referred to in Exodus is
a mistranslation 4; the early tools for
trimming lamp were small knife
and pair Of tweezers to trim the wick
and a point to part the strands. In
some cases it is curious to see how long
men remainedon the brink Of an inven-
ton. Copper wire was made by cut
ting and hammering from $500 B. c.,
yet the drawing of wire remained un-
known for six thousands yearsor more.
When the first drawn wire was made
is not yet determined but the art
seems to have been unknown to the
Romans. Thick beaten wire was
made into chain with round links as
far back as the second dynasty, $500
B. C. and links doubled and looped
through one another appeared in the
sixth dynasty, 4200 B. C. Yet chains
were not commonly used until much
later. The Gauls excelled in such
work as they used chain cables and
rigging in place of rope, to resist the
Atlantic gales. The screw was a
Greek invention, and greatly used by
the Romans as means for producing
motion but centuries passed before
the nut and screw, fastening wood
appeared. 1t is less than 200 years
since the common screw came into