Industrial sized Lathe type devices in Ancient Egypt

That sort of complexity does not pop up overnight.Plus if hard granite can be cut and polished to such a fine degree, then there must have been spinoffs with regard to other areas of industry.

Exactly .
a reply to: anonentity

If you would like some machinists evidence that the Romans used lathes to turn these sections , here it is.

A classic circular form left over from the fixture used to hold it in place as it was turned .
Notice that outside of this circle , the surface is very smooth, finished well for ‘mating ‘ nicely to the next section.
Inside the circle it is rough, because the operator couldnt reach that zone as it’s where the fixture sat .
If these are ‘rubbed’ into shape externally , why would they ‘rub’ this circle into a place that isn’t going to be seen?
It’s a remnant of the turning process, a RESULTANT mark.

Classic Lathe forensics .

Ask anyone who uses a lathe. I double dare you .



a reply to: Hanslune

…. And when I say “Lathe” I’m NOT talking about a ‘machine’ as such .
Turning and rotating a workpiece between two raised platforms whether by water or human power IS a lathe.

Roman ‘dog drive’.




a reply to: Hanslune

Roman ‘dog drive’ .

Roman ‘dog drive’ .

Double post , sorry , pressed twice as it didn’t seem to be working . Apologies

I think the pics I posted are Greek columns actually . I correct myself ..

Roman. Temple of Hercules , Sicily.

More from Tanis ..

Here is a video of ancient lathe turned pillars in India,

This guy does quite a good job explaining ancient Indian relics and what-nots.

a reply to: bluesfreak

makes sense.

hydro-power.

Tanis.

I'm love to see this posted. I've never seen the dog holes on the end on these columns before. My brother is a machinist and i owned a shop for ten years. Those are lathe witnesses. We call the lines in work (the piece being worked on) witness lines. They tell you what has happened to the piece in the past. These columns have witness lines. They were on a lathe. It's just that simple. I don't care how it was powered, they were turned.

It actually makes so much more sense. The "mystery" was that our modern scientists think these relatively modern humans were stupid. I say smart until proven stupid.

That’s a beautiful phrase “ witness lines” .
a reply to: TrollMagnet

a reply to: TrollMagnet

If they wanted anything made they would have to think smarter than us, because they did not have all the things in an ordinary hardware store.But they had less to work with but the stuff they did have seems to work well. I wonder who worked out that fish swim bladders make good glue. Or steaming wood to get the bends to stay. It's all tech.

a reply to: bluesfreak

maybe the lathes are under the Nile river somewhere , and we have been looking in the wrong places for them for this whole time.

I’m not sure anyone’s been looking for them, and I wouldn’t count anything out to be honest .
Water would definitely be involved in the process I’m sure , whether it assisted the turning or in cooling the tool, which would also help clean the dusty grindings from the workpiece during turning enabling a clearer view of the work.

I just keep looking at all the beautiful designs they executed , they are all remarkable pieces of repeatable manufacturing .
a reply to: sapien82

a reply to: bluesfreak

the thing is though they were meant to have only had access to bronze tools
so what were they using on the harder stone columns to cut it ?

even if it was done with a lathe what material was their cutting tool made of ?

Hi Sapien,
I believe you could use a harder stone than granite (diorite in plentiful supply) or granite itself .

If you want to go the ‘jewelled’ tooling route, the Ancient Egyptians certainly had emerald mines , Emerald being 7.5-8 on the Mohs scale , whereas granite is 6.

You don’t need diamonds to cut granite. Would certainly be helpful of course , but you don’t need it , and from what I’ve read the AE didn’t have it - and didn’t wear it as a royal jewel either. Emeralds they did .
I think I read they had Ruby too , that’s also harder than granite.
I don't see why the AE wouldn’t TRY these type of stones either , they were super smart .

Again , as I’ve posted before , it’s the geometry of your cutting tool that really helps when turning - an edge with a rake that allows a freer flow of material away from the cutting tool , which in the case of turning granite would more likely be a ‘grind off’ type of process rather than the ‘peeling off’ effect that we get when turning metals .

The AE also used these extensively , all are harder than Granite on the Mohs scale
Jasper
Quartz
Amethyst



a reply to: sapien82