Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1884 — Building the Pyramids. [ARTICLE]

Building the Pyramids.

Daring a residence of two winters in a tomb at Gizeh, Mr. W. F. Petrie collected evidence showing that the tools used in working stone 4,000 years ago were constructed with a jewel as the -eatturg Solid tnbalsr ■-driUe, straight and circular disk saws and lathe tools were made with jewels set in metal. The lines of cutting on a ranite core made by a tabular drill form a continuous spiral, the grooves behind of a uniform depth and width throughout, showing that the cutting-point was not worn as the work advanced. The regular taper of the core would indicate that jewels were also set upon the outside and inside of the drill, thereby facilitating its removal. In some specimens of granite drills snnk one-tenth of an inch at each revolution; and the pressure necessary to do this must have lieen from one to two tons. The skill of the workmen and the capacity of the tool are illustrated by the clean path through both hard and sost 1 material—• no difference in the groove being perceptible. although it passes from a soft substance into quartz, subjecting the tool to an enormous strain. Jn plane surfaces the depth and width of the cuts indicate the successive stroke of a saw, and the use of a circular saw is proved by the regularly curved lines. The forms of the tools were the same that experience has sanctioned at the present time. ■ The great historic country houses of England are now seldom occupied by their owners. In the season they are in London, and when that, which now extends deep into August, is over, as the Court Circular shows, they make for Scotland- for shooting or for the Continent. So the splendid old places are left to solitude and American tourists. It is with the disease of the mind' as with those of the body; we are.halfdead before we understand our disorder, and half-cured when we do. — 1 T ' In Normandv it is no uncommon sight to see a driver refresh his tired horse with a pail of cider.