The spiral was described as a “drunk screw”; I therefore traced very carefully a normal plane at right angles to its axis and measured off the distances to the spiral: they are thus, at successive quarter turns in inches.*4 20
PETRIE’S CORE MEASUREMENTS.21
Here if there were any “drink” in the screw it would appear as an irregularity in the order of the means of each quarter; whereas they proceed as regularly as the small variations due to the texture will permit. There is not 1/100" irregularity in the mean spiral, though the pitch is 1/10".
The spiral could not be produced by the mere withdrawal of the tool as it is too deeply cut to have been made without great force and it is wholly unlikely that a tool should be withdrawn with such regularity. Again as there would be from 1/10" to 2/10" of loose dust between the tool and the tapered end of the core, the cutting points of the crown would not reach it on withdrawal, and if they did so accidentally they would not touch the core in a continuous line all round, but only on one side.
That there are lines on modern drill cores is not the point. These cores are not tapered and hence the lines there can be produced by the crown.
On examination, it seems most probably to me that the coning was not due to stones set in different projections, but rather by a row of stones up the side projecting uniformly. Then when the top weight was tilted over to one side, or did not balance truly on the drill head, it would drag the drill over and thus make it enlarge the hole and taper the core as it cut downwards.
An engineer present has remarked to me that the manufacture of hammers good enough to dress down granite on such a very large scale, as in the Great and Third Pyramids, implies almost as much skill as any other method of dressing the stones.22
It is easy to be mistaken when we examine Petrie’s Core 7 to try to determine if the grooves are spiral or horizontal. It is especially easy to make a mistake if we examine a photograph in which the core is tilted to one side—such as in the photograph pictured in Giza the Truth. Before traveling to England to examine the core firsthand, I suspected that their conclusions were in error after I examined their photograph in my graphics program. plate 25 A shows Core 7 as seen in Giza the Truth. plate 25 B shows Core 7 in a corrected orientation with a vertical central axis. A construction reference frame is provided so that the tilt can be seen, and a horizontal dashed line was added to compare it with the grooves on the granite core. The horizontal dashed line indicates that the grooves appear to be horizontal in plate 25 A and tilted in plate 25 B.
Jon Bodsworth of the UK has also taken a photograph of the granite Core 7, and it is frequently displayed on the internet tilted on a similar angle as the photograph in Giza the Truth angle and used to deny Petrie’s spiral thread observations. To further explain the problem with analyzing a tapered thread when it is tilted on an angle, see figure 11.11, which is a common 3/4-inch pipe thread with 14 TPI (threads per inch). As you can see on the left, the pipe is tilted on an angle similar to the angle of Core 7 in plate 26 A. The horizontal reference line indicates that the thread is horizontal. The pipe on the right is in the correct orientation, and the reference line shows the thread as it should be—around 180 degrees of the diameter in view, the line travels from the crown of the thread to the root.
The problem with analyzing a photograph of Core 7 is that, as Petrie pointed out, the groove wanders from side to side from a theoretical perfect helix. He noted that the groove doesn’t vary more than 1/100 inch (0.010 inch; 0.254 millimeter). Yet with one thread wandering either toward or away from an adjacent thread, the published photographs by Lawton, Ogilvie-Herald, and Bodsworth have served to weaken Petrie’s argument.
Notwithstanding my suspicions, I had to travel to London to have a firsthand look at the evidence. I contacted a colleague, Nick Annies, who lives near Cambridge, and he kindly arranged for us to visit the Petrie Museum and assisted me in the examination of the core. I am greatly indebted to him for his generous hospitality and support while I was in England during this period. As I pondered how to measure the groove on the core, I considered a fixture that would rotate it while a stylus traced the groove. This seemed too elaborate, even though it would have provided quantitative measurements. I didn’t intend to measure every departure from a true helix that the groove may follow, but instead, I wanted to determine whether, as Petrie measured, it was actually a helix at all. I had only to confirm Petrie’s observations that this was not a horizontal groove that began and ended at the same point—regardless of where that point was on the circumference.
The simple and most visual test to demonstrate this would be to wrap a common white cotton thread around the core, making sure it followed the same groove. This test was performed on November 15, 1999, and results were posted at www.gizapower.com/petrie/petrie1.htm. Some readers objected to my observations and continued to accept Reid and Brownlee’s observations as factual, even though, unlike Petrie and me, they had not produced anything other than a photograph of a tilted core and an opinion based only on that photograph. After examining the core myself, I was convinced of the correctness of Petrie’s observations, but I realized that I had to gather even better evidence to support them.
Figure 11.11. Threaded pipe tilted at the orientation of Core 7
Gas turbine engine–manufacturing engineers are very familiar with large and small cones that have varying ratios of height to top and bottom diameters. Sheet metal cones start out as a flat blank. They can be rolled either with or without any geometric features machined around the body of the cone. Today, this work is performed with computer software by which an engineer can create a cone, apply geometric features to its surface, and then unwrap it into a flat blank. The special software algorithms provide the geometry as it needs to be machined in the flat blank. With this in mind, and with my own testimony as well as Petrie’s dismissed, it became imperative that I obtain a latex impression of the core so that I could present the grooves on a flat blank. This would make the entire surface of the cone visible, dismissing any doubt about the correctness of Petrie’s observations and measurements.
Figure 11.12. Core 7 with white cotton thread wrapped along a spiral groove
Following my first visit to the Petrie Museum, a geologist in England who was also interested in Petrie’s Core 7 and had read both Petrie’s work and mine contacted me via e-mail. Malcolm McClure had retired from British Petroleum and had a passion for investigating anomalous events from history and the present. McClure had found solutions to most mysteries, he told me, but was still not satisfied with what has been written regarding the grooves on Petrie’s Core 7. He was not convinced they were horizontal, but he was also not quite convinced by Petrie or me that they were spiral either. I explained my dilemma to Mr. McClure and explained that I needed to examine the core again and also have a latex impression made of the core so that the grooves could be examined in two dimensions laid out flat. He contacted Dr. Stephen Quirke, the curator of the museum, and I gained permission to perform another analysis.
I arrived in England on March 30, 2003, and enjoyed the generous hospitality of Graham Hancock and his wife Santha Faiia, who provided me with accommodation in their London home. The following day I met Mr. McClure and Nick Annies, who would assist by taking photographs with his digital camera, and after breakfast at the University College London student hall, we headed over to the Petrie Museum.
I performed the same thread wrap around the core with Mr. McClure and Mr. Annies observing closely. After achieving sixteen wraps around the core, I could sense that Mr. McClure was anxious to try it himself, and he eagerly took the core and thread from me and set to work wrapping the thread around the core, being careful to fit it into the groove as he went. After performing several wraps himself, he declared that he was speechless, and pondered whether he, being the observer and knowing of the spiral claim for the core, had affected the outcome. This is because there are discontinuities in the groove, which is why Petrie noted only four continuous t
urns. Using the thread, and reaching a point in the turn where a discontinuity exists, uncertainty exists as to where the groove picks up again.
After our work was finished, we met with Dr. Stephen Quirke and discussed the possibility of having a latex mold made of the core. Dr. Quirke said he would forward the request to the conservationist, James Hale. He also indicated that he looked forward to seeing the controversy surrounding this artifact eventually settled. Evidently, he fielded another request from a person who wished to perform an analysis on the core to see if, by rotating it and putting a phonograph needle in the groove it might reveal untold secrets from the past.
The latex peel provides another view of Core 7 and valuable information regarding the spiral groove’s regularity and frequency along the length of the core. I received the latex impression in the mail in 2003, but my time and attention shortly thereafter became consumed with personal and family matters, and it sat for several years before I examined it. When I finally began to work with it, the edges had begun to split, so I knew that my intention of mounting it on a tapered mandrel would not work. Instead, I inserted a plastic tube on its interior and cut two square holes along its length near the splits. Then I cut a line between the square holes and continued with the cut to join with the splits at the ends (see figure 11.13).
It was my intention to unfold the latex into a flat blank and examine the grooves with the blank oriented to the notches. If the grooves were horizontal, they would appear as an arc that started and ended at the same point. Orienting the blank by using the notches that were once joined, I could analyze the entire surface. As seen in figure 11.14, points A and B identify the start and end point of an arc that would be horizontal or would have the same start and end point. Points C and D do not have the same start and end point and, therefore, represent a spiral groove. Point C joins with point F, completing one turn of the spiral and starting another.
Figure 11.13. A latex impression of Core 7 showing notches and cut lines
Figure 11.14. Geometry of a spiral groove on the unfolded latex impression of Core 7
I then flattened the latex on a piece of white construction board and photographed it using an 8-megapixel camera. plate 26 has been color enhanced in order to highlight the grooves, and I have applied construction lines and arcs. Readers are welcome to perform their own analysis of these photographs, but my final conclusion based on Malcolm McClure’s and my on-site inspection as well as the flat layout of the surface with arcs applied is that the groove around the Petrie Core 7 is a spiral rather than individual horizontal striations as claimed by Reid and Brownlee and others. Moreover, this spiral groove travels the full length of the core, and any discontinuities are due to the ripping out of the mica—a constituent of the granite—with some discontinuities seen as faint lines on the latex peel, but on the granite core they cannot be seen with the naked eye. On the whole, the quartz seemed to be fairly intact, but the extent of the ripping in the mica was extensive.
Taking into consideration Petrie’s own account, my inspection in 1999, and Malcolm McClure’s and my inspection in 2003, along with analysis of the latex impression of the core, the question as to whether the groove is horizontal or spiral appears to be answered. The groove follows a continuous helical path around the circumference of the core down its full length, with periodic discontinuities along the way.
As seen in the close-up photographs of the latex impression, the irregularities in the groove cannot be overlooked and seem to argue against the theory that a tool with a precise mechanism for advancement was used. These inaccuracies, along with random movement of material removed from the hole during the process, though, support a strong argument that either a manual or an inaccurate, mechanically controlled tool played some part in performing the work. Upon closer inspection, I find no evidence to support the theory that ultrasonic drilling was employed. In fact, there is an abundance of evidence, when we look closely at the surface of the latex, to argue against this theory.
Petrie’s measurement of 0.100 inch (2.54 millimeters) distance between the grooves is not supported by the evidence seen in figure 15. The grooves seen here range from 0.050–0.080 inch (1.27–2.03 millimeters), though they depart at places and are closer to what Petrie measured. Also, the depth of the groove, as seen in figure 11.16 varies to a maximum depth of 0.0075 inch (0.190 millimeter). Inexplicable features that become more prominent when seen on the magnified surface are the raised areas where, presumably, material was by some means gouged out in the drilling process. They appear like bubbles on the surface. The latex impression also clearly reveals an addition to the grooves, with short grooves (or runs) connecting one groove to the next in a relatively short distance. In some areas, the additional run is almost vertical to the axis of the core. This feature is not clearly evident on the core itself and is not mentioned by Petrie or any other observer that I am aware of.
Figure 11.15. Close-up photographs of the latex impression of Core 7 showing random bubbles and diverting runs on the surface
After failing to obtain a good photograph of Denys Stocks’s drilling experiments, other than what was in his published articles and book, I was left wondering whether there can be any reasonable link between the methods he used and those the ancient Egyptians used and impressed upon their granite. Though Mr. Stocks indicated that final twisting of the drill at the conclusion of the drilling created the spiral grooves, it is hard to believe that random scratches from a reciprocating bow drill would organize themselves into a continuous spiral down the length of the core with a few twists of the drill. Nonetheless, Stocks is the man with the evidence that allowed him to form this opinion, so without access to his evidence, I was left with no option but to drill a piece of granite myself.
Figure 11.16. Inspecting depth of groove on latex impression
I obtained a piece of red granite from a local monument dealer and defined the outside diameter of a 2.125-inch (5.4-centimeter) copper tube on the top of a flat surface of the granite. After chiseling a shallow groove around the marked circle using a carbide-tipped drill point, I then poured silicon carbide 80-mesh grit into the groove. (Silicon carbide has a Mohs hardness of 9.5, whereas quartz sand has a hardness of Mohs 7, the same hardness as the quartz in the granite.) I then began to rotate the drill assembly, which was weighted with 60-pound (27.215-kilogram) lifting weights, clockwise and counterclockwise. At first I tried using a bow strung with leather cord but found it inefficient and awkward, so I equipped the assembly with a common machine handle and rotated it without the bow. I doubt that the granite knew the difference.
After reaching about a 0.25-inch depth, I switched to a diamond hole saw and took the hole to its maximum depth of 1.64 inches (4.165 centimeters). Then I inserted the copper tube again and worked the hole down further. Having my hands in contact with the drill assembly was beneficial, as I was able to feel when fresh grit was needed to be introduced into the slot—it didn’t take long for the grit to wear down to nothing but dust, and the difference in the vibration through the drill assembly between fresh grit and dust was substantial.
As I worked the tube deeper into the granite, I consciously wobbled it more than I needed to so that the surfaces of the core and the hole were ground away. After reaching a depth of 2.265 inches (6.73 centimeters), I used a copper wedge-shaped mandrel and attempted to knock the core out of the hole. Stocks does not say what material his chisels were made from, but I assume they were copper as the ancient Egyptians allegedly didn’t have steel. If so, he was more successful than I, because my copper wedge wouldn’t budge the core and became deformed as the granite resisted the copper’s inherently soft characteristics. Ultimately, I resorted to a steel chisel and with one blow the core gave way.
The statistics of the hole, core, and drills are as follows:
Although I tilted the tube intentionally to the side after using the diamond hole saw, striations made by the diamond were not all ground away. The areas where they exist on the core are evid
ent in figure 11.18. The larger percentage of their marks, however, were removed as the tube ground the hole to depth. The diamond hole saw striations reveal that another method, suggested by Petrie, does not produce the kind of spiral groove evident on Core 7. Similarly, the area worked with abrasive and copper do not produce the striations revealed in ancient Egyptian holes, i.e., figure 11.18 top left and top right, which are reflected on Core 7.
Another feature that was evident as a result of my drilling experiment, and which also serves to dispel both the copper and abrasive and the theory of ultrasonic drilling, is the finish on the surface of the hole and core. When using sand, or any other abrasive to remove material, what other finish would we expect other than a sanded finish? Even if I was able to dig deeper grooves into the granite, as I am sure Stocks was able to, the surface finish on the granite using an abrasive method is unlike the surface finish on Core 7 or on the holes that the ancient cores came out of. As we can see in plate 25, Core 7 is not sanded, but appears to have a polish to it.
Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt: Advanced Engineering in the Temples of the Pharaohs Page 28
