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Heron's Screwcutter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

A. G. Drachmann
A. G. Drachmann
Affiliation:
Copenhagen, Bjerregaardsvej 5
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Extract

In a paper on Ancient Oil Mills and Presses I touched upon Heron's screw-cutter, an instrument for cutting an inside screw thread in wood, described by him in his Mechanics (iii. 21). In relation to the oil-presses, it was a mere side-issue; but since the editor of the text, L. Nix, did not seem to have understood the instrument fully, I gave my own interpretation of the text, and a reconstruction, on paper, of the instrument.

This interpretation, or rather, the reconstruction, has been called in question by Mr. E. J. Andre Kenny, who in Antiquity, 1933, 7. 249, declares, that it is ‘ technically impossible.’ If that is the case, either the text, or my interpretation of it (or both), would seem to be at fault. Quite apart from the general inadvisability of starting an argument against a review it seems clear that such a question could only be satisfactorily answered in one way: by a practical experiment.

Type
Notes
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , 1936 , pp. 72 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1936

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References

page 72 note 1 Det kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Archaeologisk-kunsthistoriske Meddelelser, 1, 1, 1932Google Scholar.

page 76 note 1 Compare fig. 1, B.