Why did John Henry hammer till he died?

Subject: RE: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
From: leprechaun
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 08:22 PM

Yes but Jackhammer John was a jackhammer man, born with a jackhammer in his hand. (Lord, Lord, I got them jackhammer blues) He's a hammerin' man from a hammerin' town; gonna hammer on hammer till the sun goes down. (Lord, Lord, Lord I got them jackhammer blues) Got a jackhammer gal as sweet as pie, gonna hammer on a hammer till the day I die...

What's with these hammerin' guys and dying?

And by the way where's WYSIWYG? Anywhere near Yellowstone?

Kevin

Subject: RE: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
From: Gegenhuber
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 03:17 PM

Why did John Henry hammer till he died, you ask? Well, this was before ergonomically correct hammers, you see.

Kurt "this is the keyboard that killed John Henry" Gegenhuber

Subject: RE: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
From: GUEST,Chicken Charlie
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 01:13 PM

Actually he wasn't hammering to beat the steam drill. He was hammering to cover up the sound of the banjo.

CC

Subject: RE: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 03:37 PM

LOL! No doubt.

- LH

Subject: RE: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
From:
Date: 05 Oct 02 - 10:23 AM

Serious reply, my best inference:

John Henry was motivated by pride (he was a champion steel driver in contests with other men), gain (the Captain had offered him $50 and a new suit of clothes if he won), and love (he and the Captain had been close for many years, back in Mississippi, where they both grew up - the Captain treated him like a son).

He didn't intend to die, of course, but he had had a recent heart attack (that's when "Polly Ann drove steel like a man") and from the exertion of the contest a weakened section of the wall of his heart gave way - he suffered a ventricular rupture and bled out over the course of a half hour or so.

Subject: RE: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 07 Oct 02 - 10:49 AM

...because his mother told him that hammering on certain other things'd make him go blind !!!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 12:08 AM

SEND - "Little Hawks" postings into a quaranteen area - until clones can censor his fixation.

Subject: RE: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
From: GUEST,ToledoJack
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 12:29 AM

C'mon now - them stories aint real...

Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood,
Big John, Superman, Paul Bunyan & Babe The Blue Ox, George of the
Jungle, Tarzan, Jack & The Bean Stalk --- them are all just made up stories

Subject: RE: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 02:18 AM

But why did the "un-buggered thread" (catspaw49 19 Jan 02 - 10:59 AM) get re-buggered and now needs to be de-buggered?


I got very confused here, with things that didn't seem to have proper context. As it was mostly Spaw, Lhawk, etc., it wasn't completely unexpected, but looking at the order of posts it seems that it's a random universe at best.

First column, numbered in order of apparent time of original post.
Second column, numbered in order listed 29 AUG 2005.
I'm not sure that the order of listing is consistent from one visit to the thread to the next??

  1        1        Little Hawk        18 Jan 02 - 05:55 PM
  2        2        Rick Fielding        18 Jan 02 - 06:09 PM
  3        3        Little Hawk        18 Jan 02 - 06:26 PM
  4        4        WYSIWYG        18 Jan 02 - 06:37 PM
  5        5        Bill D        18 Jan 02 - 06:54 PM
  6        45        catspaw49        18 Jan 02 - 06:59 PM
  7        6        Tom French        18 Jan 02 - 07:12 PM
  8        7        Nancy King        18 Jan 02 - 07:24 PM
  9        8        WYSIWYG        18 Jan 02 - 07:59 PM
  10        9        Tom French        18 Jan 02 - 08:07 PM
  11        10        53        18 Jan 02 - 08:11 PM
  12        11        WYSIWYG        18 Jan 02 - 08:40 PM
  13        12        WYSIWYG        18 Jan 02 - 08:40 PM
  14        13        GUEST,Desdemona        18 Jan 02 - 08:40 PM
  15        14        Little Hawk        18 Jan 02 - 08:48 PM
  16        15        Amos        18 Jan 02 - 08:50 PM
  17        16        Little Hawk        18 Jan 02 - 09:06 PM
  18        17        catspaw49        18 Jan 02 - 09:15 PM
  19        18        CapriUni        18 Jan 02 - 10:35 PM
  20        19        masato sakurai        18 Jan 02 - 10:57 PM
  21        20        WYSIWYG        18 Jan 02 - 11:11 PM
  22        51        Bert        19 Jan 02 - 02:00 AM
  23        52        DaveJ        19 Jan 02 - 04:39 AM
  24        53        catspaw49        19 Jan 02 - 08:44 AM
  25        23        Jeri        19 Jan 02 - 10:12 AM
  26        24        catspaw49        19 Jan 02 - 10:59 AM
  27        21        Rick Fielding        19 Jan 02 - 12:14 AM
  28        22        Kaleea        19 Jan 02 - 12:26 AM
  29        25        wildlone        19 Jan 02 - 01:32 PM
  30        26        wildlone        19 Jan 02 - 01:49 PM
  31        27        Don Firth        19 Jan 02 - 03:25 PM
  32        54        Little Hawk        19 Jan 02 - 03:58 PM
  33        28        catspaw49        19 Jan 02 - 07:24 PM
  34        29        Amos        19 Jan 02 - 07:40 PM
  35        30        Jeri        19 Jan 02 - 07:53 PM
  36        31        catspaw49        19 Jan 02 - 08:06 PM
  37        32        Little Hawk        19 Jan 02 - 09:43 PM
  38        42        GUEST,pelrad        19 Jan 02 - 11:52 PM
  39        41        CRANKY YANKEE        20 Jan 02 - 02:55 AM
  40        35        John 'Giok' MacKenzie        20 Jan 02 - 05:41 AM
  41        43        GUEST,Souter        20 Jan 02 - 12:47 AM
  42        44        Little Hawk        20 Jan 02 - 02:30 PM
  43        33        Hollowfox        20 Jan 02 - 09:10 PM
  44        46        WYSIWYG        21 Jan 02 - 09:10 AM
  45        47        Gegenhuber        21 Jan 02 - 10:42 AM
  46        34        catspaw49        21 Jan 02 - 12:13 AM
  47        36        Little Hawk        21 Jan 02 - 12:48 AM
  48        37        catspaw49        21 Jan 02 - 12:53 AM
  49        49        Ned Ludd        21 Jan 02 - 06:46 PM
  50        48        leprechaun        21 Jan 02 - 08:22 PM
  51        38        Little Hawk        21 Jan 02 - 12:12 PM
  52        39        Gegenhuber        22 Jan 02 - 03:17 PM
  53        40        GUEST,Chicken Charlie        23 Jan 02 - 01:13 PM
  54        50        Little Hawk        23 Jan 02 - 03:37 PM
  55        55        GUEST,[e-mail]        05 Oct 02 - 10:23 AM
  56        56        Art Thieme        07 Oct 02 - 10:49 AM
  57        57        GUEST        29 Aug 05 - 12:08 AM
  58        58        GUEST,ToledoJack        29 Aug 05 - 12:29 AM
  

(Not real pretty, but I ain't gonna make a table just to straighten it up.)

John

Subject: RE: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Sep 19 - 11:22 AM

Wile not directly connected to John Henry, the Pittsfield (Mass.) Sun (May 1, 1851), indicates the capabilities of steam drills even before the Civil War:

"The public papers a few days since gave an account of the work and working on a tunnel near Black Rock, N.Y. By working night and day with three shifts of hands, working with a steam drill, they made two feet progress in twenty-four hours."

Subject: RE: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
From: GUEST,Big gene
Date: 19 Jul 21 - 08:50 PM

As a man who has swung a sledge hammer for a living, and been to the Big Bend tunnel on the C&o canal, It's somewhere north west of Paw Pawpaw, and north but not far from the Potomac I have different takes on the song. First, the Luddite anti progress verses man of honor proud in his labor having dignity argument, guess a little of both sides. I ran survey crews for years, stopping every 25 or 50 feet to drive a hub and stake in the ground. I have also swung a hammer to break rock and concrete. I have used a 4,6,8,12,16 & 20 lb hammer. Never used a 9, go figure. One learns and gets to the point where a good steady pace becomes easy. Shaker held the star drill in place, a chisel with a head like an asterisk. He twisted it between swings to clear the broken rock, miss and if you don't smash the shaker's hand badly, a chip may fly off the drill steel, and it can cut you badly. Being out of practice on a supervisory project I had, I borrowed a contractor friends 20 lber. Fooling around I tried a roundhouse swing. Thought I might rip my pectorals from my body. Heart attack, stroke from over exertion, or just ripped his chest apart. He showed he could do it And I believe then he died.

Subject: RE: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 18 Sep 21 - 12:57 AM

On the cable-tv History Channel, there is a new series called Man vs. History. Episode 2 dealt with John Henry and is definitely worth a look. Episodes can be streamed:

Man vs. History - Season 1

The steam drill challenge is recreated, and to put it briefly, is not at all as it was depicted in the George Pal Puppetoon I watched so many times in my childhood!

Jay

Subject: RE: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
From: JHW
Date: 18 Sep 21 - 05:05 AM

'as a bairn' the way to make a hole in a wall was a threesided chisel which you had to rotate as above between bashes.