John Henry vs. the Steam Drill
John Henry, the legendary steel-driving man, worked as a hammer-swinging laborer blasting tunnels through mountains for the expanding railroad. When a salesman brought a steam-powered drilling machine to the worksite, claiming it could outwork any man, the captain of the crew proposed a contest: man against machine. John Henry accepted the challenge to prove that human strength and dignity could not be replaced by cold iron. With his shaker holding the drill steady, John Henry swung his nine-pound hammer in great arcs, driving steel deeper and faster than the steam drill. For hours the contest