Boring
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Boring. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a method of drilling holes. In mining and in prospecting for oil three methods are employed. The simplest method is that of attaching various steel drilling instruments to the end of a cord and letting them fall by their own weight. This method has been long in use among the Chinese. In the second method the rope is replaced by a sectional rod which is raised from the hole whenever it is necessary to exchange a chisel for a scoop with which to remove the dust. The modern instrument, with which engineers bore holes from an inch and one-half to several inches in diameter, is the diamond drill. Pointed pieces of black diamond, harder than any other rock or metal, are set around one end of a steel tube. As this tube is rotated swiftly the diamonds cut an annular hole through the rock, permitting the tube to descend around a core. Water forced through the tube clears the cutting edge from dust and carries it up outside of the tube. As the instrument advances, the cylinder is lengthened by screwing on sections of iron tubing of the same diameter. The core is broken off and removed from time to time. In this way borings are made not infrequently to a depth of half a mile. Prospectors bore holes with diamond drills to ascertain whether a body of ore is worth working. Diamond drills, driven by small engines or electrical motors, are used extensively by miners and quarrymen in making ready for blasting. The superintendent or foreman of a mine not infrequently carries $20,000 worth of diamond points with which to replace those that have become dull. See Blasting 2026 Editor's Note: Drilling went far deeper than the entry could imagine. The Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia reached 7.6 miles down by 1989 and had to stop when the rock turned unexpectedly hot and plastic. Modern rigs also steer: directional drilling can turn a well sideways for miles, the technique that, with hydraulic fracturing, remade the world oil market. (Ed: BR 2026-06-08)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a process in mechanical and engineering operations, variously performed according to the medium dealt with. For making small holes in soft woods and like substances, awls are employed, which merely cut and displace a portion of the yielding material. In bor- , carpening hard woods and large holes ters use gimlets, augers, and the brace and bits, which all cut and scoop out the material. In the jewelry and small metal industries, hand drills, which consist of a spindle with steel bits, to which reciprocating rotation is given, are the implements for piercing small holes. The boring of holes in metal plates is effected by means of drills driven by machinery. As applied to the earth and to rocks, boring embraces two classes of operations -boring of shot holes for blasting, and the sin sinking of bores in prospecting for minerals, and in forming wells for water, salt brine, and mineral oils. Blast holes in rocks are made from one to twosometimes more-inches in diameter, and may pierce to the depth of 9 feet. Such holes are most simply made in hard rock hamby a steel-pointed drill, struck by a mer, and turned partly round after each blow to make the hole cylindrical. BORIS III., King of Bulgaria; born Jan. 30, 1894. He was the eldest son of King Ferdinand, and succeeded to the throne when the latter abdicated and fled to Vienna, Oct. 4, 1918.