The first powered dentist’s drill was made by George Washington’s dentist, John Greenwood, who adapted his mother’s spinning wheel with its foot treadle to rotate his instrument.
Earlier dentists had operated their drills by means of bowstrings, a method which must have required skill, determination and physical stamina on the part of the dentist, as well as a great deal of courage from the patient. Later drills were operated by turning a handle at the side.
In 1829 James Nasmyth, the Scottish inventor of the steam hammer, used rotary power to improve the efficiency of the drill. A hand-operated drill with a flexible cable was patented by Charles Merry, an American dentist in 1858; and George Harrington, an Englishman, invented in 1864 a drill driven by a clockwork motor.
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