Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman TimesMilne, John Stewart
History
Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times
Milne, John Stewart
Surgery -- History; Surgical instruments and apparatus
Vidius shows three arrangements for driving these drills with thongs: the
first method consists simply of a thong attached to the shaft of the drill
(Pl. XLII, fig. 4); the second consists of a bow with the string of the
bow wound once round the shaft (Pl. XLII, fig. 5); and the third consists
of a crosspiece with a hole in the centre of it through which the shaft
passes, and having strings from the end of the crosspiece to the top of
the shaft (Pl. XLII, fig. 3). Primitive arrangements truly, yet all three
methods of producing rotary motion are to be seen in use at the present
day, and be it known that some of the most delicate boring performed by
the hand of man at the present day is done with drills turned by the thong
stretched across a bow. The latest developments in mechanical devices for
drilling have failed to displace thong-driven drills for boring the holes
in which the wheel spindles of the best hand-made chronometers move, and
the spindles themselves are turned in chucks rotated not by belts in
continuous rotary motion, but in alternating motion by means of a thong
stretched across a bow. A bow of cane with a strong but fine thread, one
turn of which is taken round the drill, is drawn backwards and forwards
and rotates the drill with marvellous rapidity and accuracy. The bows used
by watchmakers average about a foot along the string. Similar drills are
used by engineers in turning out small work. The form with the crosspiece
may be seen in use by travelling crockery menders, who drill holes in
broken pottery and clamp the pieces with rivets. A turn or two of the
string is made round the shaft, and the point of the drill being adjusted
on the spot to be bored the crosspiece is gently pressed down by the first
and third fingers, causing the shaft to rotate. When the thong has nearly
uncoiled itself the pressure is slightly removed, the momentum causes the
shaft to overrun and coil the thong in the opposite direction to which it
originally was. The crosspiece is again depressed and the alternating
rotation goes on without intermission, and the drill bores through the
pottery. The travelling crockery mender is, in the northern towns of
England, not an unusual sight squatting at work on the kerb. On the
continent the 'Rastelbinder' is a regular domestic institution. Not only
crockery but glass is readily drilled by these means, and one who has seen
the rapidity with which these drills rotate can readily understand the
necessity for the advice given both by Hippocrates and Celsus to
frequently remove the drill and dip it in cold water, in case sufficient
heat be generated by the friction to cause subsequent exfoliation of the
neighbouring bone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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