•340 
KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
a face so exactly to the same level as to make such marks than to set them on an 
edge for slicing. So the simplest explanation of the specimen is that a circular 
saw was used. 
Though sawing was thus freely used for cutting the outsides of the great 
granite and basalt coffins, some other means was requisite for hollowing out the 
insides of such vessels. Here the inventive genius of the fourth dynasty exactly 
anticipated modern devices by adopting tubular drills, as the readiest and cleanest 
way of removing material with the least waste of force. These tubular drills 
varied much in diameter, thickness, and length. Those in softer materials, as 
alabaster, were smaller and thinner, not needing to carry set stones on the edge, 
but being merely worked with powder. But the larger ones used for hollowing 
out granite on a large scale, were usually 
about four inches in diameter. One of 
the finest examples (about two inches in 
diameter) is in the pivot-hole of a door in 
a lintel of the granite temple at Gizeh, 
built by the king of the Second Pyramid, 
Khafra. This is shown here, (Fig. 5,) 
drawn from a cast which Mr. Petrie ob- 
tained by means of a gutta-percha mould. 
Here it will be seen that the core could 
not be broken out entirely, owing to its 
running into a tough patch of horn-blende. 
Fig. 5. The granite-core already described, (Fig. 
i) is also a fine illustration of tubular drill work, and would be considered a 
creditable result by modern men using modern tools. The various examples of 
such drilling that have been found, mainly at Gizeh, may be tabulated thus : 
DIAMETER. 
MATERIAL. 
.24 
Alabaster 
Tube .02 thick (Fig. 6): others up to. 
•7 
(( 
Tube .04 thick. 
1.8 
Basalt 
A hole in a vase. 
1.9 
Limestone 
A core. 
2.2 
Granite 
Tube .1 thick (Fig. 5). 
2.5 
Alabaster 
A core. 
2.8 
( < 
A core. 
4.2 
Granite 
Inside of Great Pyramid coffer. 
4-5 
Greenstone 
Fragment of waste. 
4.8 
Limestone 
Two holes joined (Fig. 7). 
4.8 
Diorite 
18 about 
Limestone 
Rock dressing. 
Of these the holes inside the Great Pyramid coffer show the length of drill used, as 
