A tool or appliance for making a hole is a world-wide necessity. So early was the need felt that the drill is of unknown antiquity, but the reproductions on the next page show a few methods and appliances in use in various countries, and at various times. Fig. 6, No. 1, shows a bone perforator in use in the Neolithic ages. This is in the Horniman Museum. All the early needles for sewing were of some sort of bone or horn. Fig. 6, No. 2, is aFiredrill,and although it does not bore a hole as we understand the term, it could be used to make a hole when other appliances were not available, and was the primitive method of getting fire before the introduction of flint and steel. Fig. 6, No. 3, is a drawing of a bow drill from the sculptures at Thebes, and as this city was at the height of its prosperity in 1600 to 800 B.C., some idea can be gained of the age of a tool for drilling holes. In the Pitt-Rivers Collection at Oxford there is a drawing, taken from a fresco in Egypt, of a man using the same kind of drill, and boring a hole in a chair with it, the worker sitting down on a stool while boring. In the Horniman Museum there is a fire-making bow drill, the bow of which is the rib of a walrus, and the thong of hide. Fig. 6, No. 4, shows the ancient method adopted for boring holes in stone, but it must have been very laborious. In Fig. 4 some hammer heads are shown which have been perforated in this manner. Fig. 6, No. 5, is known as a mouth or strap drill for fire-making and has been used in Alaska, North America. The shaped piece at the top is held between the teeth, and in some instances a piece of bone or stone is inlet to take the point of the rod and so prevent it slipping or firing by the circular motion. The strap is simply a piece of hide tied round pieces of bone that can be held conveniently in the hand. The circular motion is obtained by pulling each end of the strap alternately. Fig. 6, No. 6, is a pump drill of very primitive construction; the centre rod is a piece of cane with a circular piece of wood called a whorl wedged in position. The cross bar is a flat piece of wood with a hole to take the rod, and the ends are held by a piece of skin tied to the top of the centre rod. The point or drill is a piece of shell tied on with a piece of wet skin which in drying contracts. The motion, which is backwards and forwards, is obtained by holding and working the cross bar up and down with one hand; this was in use among the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. The same pattern is now used by saw-piercers, jewellers, and china drillers, the only difference being that they are made with a steel downrod and a brass whorl, the cross bar being connected by a thin,cord. A similar drill used by jewellers, called a centrifugal drill, is arranged to turn continually in one direction, and instead of a solid brass whorl, they have a bar going through the down rod with a solid brass ball at each end, and the motion is obtained by the same action as in the Archimedean drill in Fig. 6, No. 9.

Fig. 6, No. 7, is a wood brace, made in 1760, to be seen in the Pitt-Rivers Collection at Oxford.

Fig. 6, No. 8.-This is a bow or fiddle drill of wood and of Indian manufacture. It is modern work, nicely made, and of good shape. The cutting edge of the drill is peculiar, as it is in the form of a vee, so it has a scraping action when in use. This form of drill stock is at the present time largely used for certain work, and it is called a fiddle drill. In the above-mentioned collection at Oxford some primitive lathes based on this form of drill are to be seen. There is no doubt that this form of drill suggested our lathes, through such chap, xiv.] Tools: Early Forms And Historical Development. 171 forms as the old tree lathe, the spring pole lathe, and Berson's lathe, all which work on the same simple principle.

Fig. 6.

Fig. 6, No. 9, is the simplest form of an Archimedean drill, named, it need hardly be pointed out, after the supposed inventor of the screw, Archimedes, who lived 250 B.C. This drill stock is of square iron twisted, and the travelling handpiece of gunmetal is cast on. The top works on a tenon on the twisted rod. The bottom of the rod has a square hole to hold the drills.

Fig. 6, No. 10, shows a modern hand or breast drill geared to two speeds. It has a universal three-jaw chuck to hold the drill. The original ones of this pattern were called Millar's Falls drills, after the place where they were made. In addition to the above drills and materials used as drills, operations have revealed that tubular drills set with emery were used in ancient Egypt. Needless to say, diamonds have replaced emery in the modern development of the tubular drill.