I was asked this the other day, and was stumped. We all know that Jawn Henry beat the steam hammer, but how was it determined? Was it feet per hour, a side by side race, or who gets to the middle first? Does anybody have pics of what this steam hammer looked like?

Where exactly is "Jawns Tunnel"?

Thanks all!

Dave Brown

smokebox1@home.com

> I was asked this the other day, and was
> stumped. We all know that Jawn Henry beat
> the steam hammer, but how was it determined?
> Was it feet per hour, a side by side race,
> or who gets to the middle first? Does
> anybody have pics of what this steam hammer
> looked like?

> Where exactly is "Jawns Tunnel"?

> Thanks all!

> Dave Brown

I would have said that Jawn Henry was a purely legendary figure and has never been convincingly identified with any historical individual, unlike Casey Jones, for instance. But I could be wrong. Jawn's tunnel would be whichever tunnel was best known to the people telling the story.

I think the process described in the song is one of drilling holes in the solid rock for inserting dynamite. Henry would be pounding on a star chisel or something similar with his 12-pound hammer, while his assistant held the chisel with tongs, presumably. The steam hammer would look like a large rivet gun, I guess, with a chisel tool, but was probably too heavy to hold and needed some sort of heavy stand. The race would involve drilling a specified number of holes so they could blow another couple feet off the working face of the tunnel. Henry's only hope of winning was if the steam hammer took a long time to set up and didn't work very reliably, I should think.

I probably got this from reading Freeman Hubbard, but it was a long time ago. Your speculations are as good as mine.

> I was asked this the other day, and was
> stumped. We all know that Jawn Henry beat
> the steam hammer, but how was it determined?
> Was it feet per hour, a side by side race,
> or who gets to the middle first? Does
> anybody have pics of what this steam hammer
> looked like?

> Where exactly is "Jawns Tunnel"?

> Thanks all!

> Dave Brown

The legendary John Henry worked on the Big Bend Tunnel on the C&O (CSX) near Talcott WV. This is between Clifton Forge and Hinton on the former C&O's Main Line.

See: http://wvlightning.com/photo/bigbend.html for more info.

Electric City Trolley Museum Associ

> I was asked this the other day, and was
> stumped. We all know that Jawn Henry beat
> the steam hammer, but how was it determined?
> Was it feet per hour, a side by side race,
> or who gets to the middle first? Does
> anybody have pics of what this steam hammer
> looked like?

> Where exactly is "Jawns Tunnel"?

> Thanks all!

> Dave Brown

Here's the Summers County WV visitors bureau site: http://www.summerscvb.com/henry.htm

Note "Jawn Henry" is the N&W's spelling of John Henry, a C&O hero's name.


Electric City Trolley Museum Associ