338 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
shows the lines on basalt produced by the successive strokes of the saw ; their 
regularity, both in depth and in distance apart, shows unmistakably that they are 
due to successive strokes of the cutting point, and not to any accidental or irreg- 
ular causes. On other pieces of granite, diorite, basalt and limestone, similar 
marks may be found. A piece of diorite shows grooves y^-g- inch deep, cut with- 
out any irregularity or starting of the tool ; and a piece of the drill-hole in diorite 
shows seventeen equidistant grooves, probably equal to a cut twenty feet in length, 
without any appreciable difference in the groove from one end to the other. The 
fragments of diorite bowls with incised superscriptions which were picked up by 
Mr. Petrie at Gizeh show also the use of a graving point far harder than quartz 
since the hieroglyphics are made by a cut with jagged edges, and not either 
scraped or ground. These are of the earliest period, as they bear the names of 
Semaferu and Khufu, the two oldest kings of whom any contemporary remains 
are known. 
Considering these examples of work, — the definite grooves produced, their 
depths, continuity and equality throughout, the capacity of the cutting point for 
dealing with the hardest materials, and the rapidity with which the cutting was. 
done, the tube-drills sinking J^ inch in granite at every revolution, — it seems 
certain that no instrument but a metallic tool set with fixed jewel points could 
produce such results. The passage of the grooves without any interruption 
through the quartz, feldspar, hornblende, and mica of the red granite (as seen on 
the specimen in Fig. i) is also a feature which shows brilliantly the capabilities of 
the tools, and the skill with which they were constructed. The strain on the 
cutting points in thus passing from a softer material into a patch of quartz would 
be enormous, far greater than if working continuously in quartz; and yet there is 
no starting, no burring, and no failure of the cutter. 
If examples of work done by any grinding process be examined, it will be 
seen that there is not a trace of the definite grooves, such as are in the specimens 
alluded to. On modern lapidaries' work, done by a wheel fed with loose dia- 
mond powder, numerous shifts in the plane of the cut may be seen, showing the 
outline of the wheel; but no grooves or definite plowings in the material produced 
by individual points of diamond. Similarly in the tubular drillings done with soft 
iron and sand by the Chinese, or in similar work by other nations, there is never 
seen any trace of plowing-out of the material; and, indeed, it seems physically 
impossible that any particle of a loose powder could become so imbedded in a soft 
metal by the mere accident of rubbing, but it could bear the immense strain 
needed to plow out a groove of considerable depth in such a hard material as 
quartz ; or make a groove passing continuously through hard and soft material 
without any interruption or differnce. The systematic use of jewel points set in 
some basis, may therefore be considered as proved by the existing work, and the 
fact that the loose sand left in a cut, and also the sides of some of the cuts are 
found to be stained green, leads to the conclusion that the metal of the setting 
was bronze. 
