This episode is brought to you by square Space. Start building your website today at square space dot com. Enter our offer code stuff at check out to get ten percent off square Space. Build it beautiful. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, you're welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerry's over there, which means time for Stuff you should know. The Jackhammer edition coming at you. That's right, the most annoying, one of the most annoying sounds. I know you hate the leaf flower. Yeah, it's established. I think the leaf jack camera right there? If sure, Yeah, but we don't live in New York. If we lived in New York, jackhammera B number one. I feel like I've never stayed in a hotel in New York where there wasn't a jack below me, not even a chance. Every single time leaf blower. It's a lot more frequent down here in Atlanta than Jack Cameron. A lot of leaf blowers in New York City, not a lot of leaves. Well, that's not necessarily true. Been some where you are. Uh so we don't usually um shout out to thank you at the beginning of an episode. But we got a couple of gifts that are so special we want to do that. So Peter O'Donnell in the gang at built Sharp knives. B I LT Sharp out of Philly. H sent us sent me a chef's knife, sent you a filet knife. Beautiful and it's one of the most gorgeous pieces of like handmade craftsmanship I've ever seen. It's amazing. I cannot wait to catch a fish. Oh dude, I can't wait for that for you cut that thing open after it's dead. Uh really, you can't lock the head off while it's still alive, and you're supposed to. You're supposed to hit it with a hammer. I think some people do. Um, I do not. These things are gorgeous. I mean the blade itself, I mean they hand make these, the handle, the weight, it's just it's a piece of art. And not only that, it is the sharpest thing I've ever seen in my life. It's like dangerous. Um, well, I don't want to you know, it's dangerous. They're knives. They're supposed to be sharp, but wield it with respect. Well yeah, well they're respectable knives. Um. You can actually go into Tumbler. You can just search hashtag knives. You should know one word and it uh it chronicles and pictures and short captions or brief captions the process of them making our knives. It's awesome. Yeah, it's just really neat. And I just love like handcrafting and forging steel, like those are lost arts in a lot of ways, and um, they're doing it right man, They're really beautiful. So anyway, thank you, Yeah, thank you guys. Yeah, thanks people. Was really cool. So jack hammers, yeah, jack hammers. If they were sharpest built sharp knives, they'd be onto something. But I don't know if it would work quite the same not so. Um, yes, it's true, we are actually talking about jack hammers. And yes, it's true that jack hammers are about what you think they are. But they're also kind of interesting when you start to look into them, right yeah, well yes, so think about I didn't realize this. This article points it out. Jack hammer is a hammer and a chisel, but it's a hardcore hammer and chisel. Yeah, and it takes out of the equation largely the human who's back and shoulder muscles have to be involved in every single strike of that hammer. And chisel. You're talking John Henry and the sledge hammer. Yes, exactly, because prior to the advent of the jackhammer, about that fifties, by the turn of the last century, we had jack hammers kind of down pat um. It was sledge hammers and pick axes to remove rock. It was a real deal. That was like it killed people, like it literally could kill you with that kind of work. Yeah, I mean, mining is still a very dangerous job, but pre Industrial Revolution mining was no fun um, dangerous, deadly, and even if you didn't die, it's just brutal, brutal back baking work, baking work, slinging a sledgehammer. Yeah, you ever slung a sledge It's the worst. It's it's hard work. You ever used the jackhammer? No, I haven't. It's awful. Well, that's the thing. It's it's better than the sledgehammer. Yeah, well in some ways, but it's brutally difficult. It is. It's probably one of the most brutal tools you can use on any kind of site and for any kind of project. There aren't that many tools that they're they're gonna take as much out of you as the jackhammer. It's tough on your body. Yeah, because they weigh about a hundred pounds, like a new normal heavy duty jackhammer weighs about a hundred pounds. You have to hold it in place upright, because you don't want to jumping around, although it's probably not going to anyway. It's it's designed not to jump around, but you still have to. Um. You want to kind of keep it in a fairly confined area, which means you're using your muscle to steady it while it's going up and down at a very very fast rate. Some of those things, um impact with the ground one thousand times a minute. Yeah, it's tough. It's it's the only tool that and the hardwood floor UM skimmer, you know, like the orbital floor cleaner. You can use that on it, like put a standing pad on a hardwood floor, and that thing and the sledge hammer. The only time I've ever used tools that I felt like we're controlling me and not me, not controlling the tool until you get it. Once you get it, it's a little better. But at first, when you first start to use it. You can rent a jackhammer, you know, so you know, yeah, I mean, if you want to bust up your driveway, you can go do it yourself. If you're a fool, make sure that you don't need the driveway anymore before you do that. But um, once you get the hang of it, you kind of can wield it a little bit. But it's tough. I mean, it feels like I have no power or control over this thing, right, I can imagine you know. So, Um, it is a very difficult tool. But again, the alternative is early death. And the other alternative, which is to call someone to do it for you, is the best option of the three. But so, say that you are um, King Carlo Alberto of Sardinia and the years about eighteen thirty something eighteen forty, and you want a train tunnel built through a mountain, and the tunnel is gonna need to be twelve kilometers long. You do call somebody else, but that somebody else you call goes. I don't know what to tell you, buddy. We could try pick axes or whatever, but you're not still gonna be alive by the time we finished. What can we do? And actually, this call for a twelve kilometer long tunnel through a mountain in Sardinia prompted the early um, the early forays into developing pneumatic tools like a jackhammer. Yeah, in eighty eight it got named Jonathan Couch built a what he called a percussion drill, and this had a bit that was it went through the piston of a steam engine, so it was piston driven. Then, uh, contemporary Joseph Foul actually attached it to the piston and then he started in one using air which is pneumatic to power it. But these were still attached to a piston. And it wasn't until Charles Brady King when he actually has given credit for inventing the traditional looking handheld, modern pneumatic powered jackhammer. Right, and he gets a lot of credit for stuff that was already built. Like a lot of people say he was actually the inventor of the automobile. No he wasn't. Well, he was the inventor of the gasoline powered automobile, No he wasn't. He was the first guy in Detroit to build and drive one around, and he did end up inspiring and mentoring Ransom Olds and Henry Ford and some other early car manufacturers and is almost single handily responsible for making Detroit motor city. This guy, but he also Stanley right, Uh, and what's from with it's freely. I like that guy's stuff. What do you mean didn't he get kicked out of Kiss? Oh? I think he was sort of not invited back. Yeah. I think it's a money move. They don't have to pay the nameless other guitar player nearly as well. He was a founder of the band, Right, How do you get kicked out like that for money? I think Paul Stanley and Jean Simmons probably own Kiss Incorporated. I know anyway, Um, Charles Brady King, Uh, he wait Detroit on the map as far as auto manufacturer goes. And he did do a lot of refining of pneumatic tools, including the jackhammer, and he does hold the pattern, he did hold the patent for it. Yeah, and he had been at a lot of stuff. He was a sharp guy. And the pneumatic the fact that it's pneumatic, which means air powered, compressed air powered. Um is the reason why most jackhammers today are still compressed air powered. It's because of the mining application of it. Like when you mind, you're releasing a lot of potentially explosive gases, and uh, you can't have something like a steam engine that's combustion powered down there yeah, or you can't have an engine in there releasing exhaust. Um, and you can't have a jackhammer that will spark a rock. Um. Well, that might happen no matter what. Right, well, no, that's what I'm saying. You can't have that among volatile gases. Right You've air driven is the perfect key, because it doesn't matter if that hoses a thousand feet long, You're not gonna lose power because it's gonna be Yeah, it's gonna be compressed air up against compressed air, and up on the surface. You've got a diesel engine that's powering a piston, just like in your car, and the piston moves up and down the cylinder. As it moves down, it compresses the air in the cylinder and pushes it down into a storage tank where it sits his compressed air and that's released out the other end through the hose and it ends up into the jackhamer. And yeah, no matter how far away it is, it's still going to be just as powerful. And that compressed air is inflammable. So you can be a happy minor all the live long day. Well, buddy, you're getting excited. So that means we need to take a break and uh, put this pill under your tongue and we'll come back right after this. How you feeling now, Relax good? I love the title of this next section, Air powered destruction. Um. You can get an electric jack hammer. If you've ever gone to a hardware store, they have these kind of smaller handheld jack hammers that, um, you can take up like your bathroom floor tile pretty well with it plugging into the wall. Has a little chisel bit on the end of it. Um, But that's small. Beans. You can't do a driveway or concrete or asphalt with with something like that tunnel through a mountain in Sardinia. No, you need the big T shaped jack camera. And here's one of the things that didn't really occur to me. One of the reasons it works so well is because it's so heavy. Right. It's not like they say, well, let's make this thing way fifteen pounds or twenty pounds and make it easier to run, which they probably could. Yeah, you maybe could do that, but it would jump all over the place. Yeah, you want that thing super super heavy because that's part of the power and forced behind it. That's right. So these things are pneumatic, right, and just like on the compressed air compressor up on the surface. When you're down in the mine, they actually have a jackhammer, has a piston in a piston in a cylinder in it, right, and it's it's actually a really kind of simple When you cut the thing open and draw a cross section of it, which we did on our hands for crib sheets. Um, you you you can see that. Really the whole mechanism comes down to a trigger valve, right, that's right. So what you have here is you got the pressure chamber. The compressed air enters that chamber activates the trigger valve, and it just because of the compressed air opens and shuts really fast, right, and so the trigger valve moves the air either above the piston or when it closes, the air goes down below the piston, which means chisel goes up, chizzle goes down, right, because the piston is striking the top of that chisel bit, driving it downward when the compressed air comes in and pushes the piston down. And then when the valve closes and the air goes underneath the piston, there's also a spring in there that brings the drill bit back up because it wouldn't work very well if you knock it down. They had to go down and reset it, and apparently the earliest um, the earliest jackhammered had that very designature that was it like it goes bam and then you definitely like reset it bam and then reset it and they're like, this isn't gonna work. Yeah, that's sort of like the pneumatic cattle punch that they that what's his face used in No Country for old Man. It's exactly like that. Not very good if you're trying to bust up concrete, but good if you want to put on a cow's It doesn't stunn them. It does the eternal stunt. I think it's stuns a cow and then they kill them. Oh I thought it they put it into the brain to kill the cow. I don't think he actually, I think it can and probably does sometimes, but I think the main purpose of it is to stun the cow, so it's not like it's just dazed and out of it when it when they kill it. Oh yeah yeah. Uh. Hydraulic jack hammers, it's the same, uh jackhammera would kill a cow. Hydraulics use fluid, same principle, but it doesn't use air. And if you've ever seen the they have jackhammers you can that are really large that you can't handle as a person. That it's like attached to a bacco or something that's for big, big jobs. And those are usually um hydraulic and pneumatic, but probably not every time. I'm sure someone in the construction industry will correct me on that. Well, I went and looked. And if you go on Alibaba that you know that's I has everything and they have hydraulic jackhammers for sale. What's Ali Baba? That sky Mall it's like China's Amazon, but they sell everything on it. It's nothing like Skymall. Do you think everything's like Skymallas because you want Skymall to come back? That sure do? Um, But they it did seem like all of the back ho attached um jack hammers were hydraulic that I saw. All right, Well, um, here's what happens at a thousand hits per minute. That chisel bit and if you're breaking up rock, there are different kinds of bits. A pointy bit if you're breaking up like a driveway or something is really good, or you can use a flat bit for other applications. So, yeah, if you're breaking up a driveway and all you want is for the driveway to go bye by, Yeah, the pointy bits the one you want because it's not a controlled cut. The the like a flathead screw drivers style bit is the kind that where you can really kind of control where the cracking goes, right, or if you wanna uh, like I said, if you're taking up your floor tile and you have the handheld version, that's what you want to discoot it underneath the tile and chip it up. And there's actually there's like, um, some insane mathematicians have actually like tried to figure out how you can predict how cracks propagate. Yeah, there's like a um for the most efficient jackhammering pretty much like what bit will work best, and like where to place it and how to how to use it. But um, one of the things that I didn't understand before is that when you are jackhammering, you you are creating different types of uh uh flaws basically in this solid stay concrete structure, right, And when you're doing that, the first flaw you're doing, the first flaw you're creating is this um kind of surface powder that the the initial chips you're making are actually powder rizing and and congealing around the drill bit, right, and that powder actually transmit it's the impact of the jackhammer throughout the rest of the concrete pad in that immediate area, and that actually starts to create cracks. So you think, well, it's just the drill bit creating crack it gets in there enough. Actually no, it's it's generating like these different materials from the very concrete itself, and it's using those materials to distribute the force and create cracks that ultimately start to spread and propagate. And as they spread and propagate, they get bigger and bigger, and then a chip comes off, and when the chip comes off, the amount of force that's generated and there goes down again and you have to build it back up by more jackhammering. But eventually these larger cracks that you're making come together and then big chunks break off. And then when a big chunk breaks off, you want somebody to come in and clear the chunks away while you move the jackhammer, because you're just gonna be breaking up those chunks. And that's not the point of jackhammer anymore. Now. The point is you're trying to remove whatever material in his bigger pieces can be removed, you know, like by like a bacco with a bucket or something. Um. Obviously it can't be too big because you might have to break up in the smaller bits. But you don't want a three million little tiny rocks at the end of it, right, you're not breaking it into gravel. No. The machines that do that, um, some of these things actually uh, when when you create a crater, that's good, but you don't want your crater full of junk. So some of them actually have air or water that blasts the stuff clear as you're going, which is pretty neat too. Yeah, which is a it's a big that's an issue because the stuff that that dust that accumulates, that forms what's called the crushed zone, that powder that distributes the force um is actually can be a health hazard. And there's actually a lot of health hazards with jackhammers. Uh. And we'll talk about them right after this, all right, Josh, health hazards of jackhammering. Um, that dust is no joke. Well, before we go to health hazards, let me say this. What you and actually can be a health hazard. It can be dangerous when you get your bit stuck. Um. And the general rule of thumb is you don't want to put the bit farther down. You don't want to keep going down farther than the length of the bit, because if you get your bit stuck, then it's really tough to get back out. Yeah. And while it may give you a little break, your boss isn't gonna be happy, or if you're renting that thing by the hour at your house, you're not gonna be happy. Yeah, because you just used all of the force of that compressed air to jam that that chisel bit several inches into concrete. Yes, it's you need like King Arthur to get that out. Yea, So moving around um inches at a time, so it doesn't go straight down into one spot. And you want a sharp bit as well. Obviously a dull bit is gonna get stuck easier and it's not going to break up the material as well, exactly. Um. And like you said at the beginning that jackhammers one of the noisiest tools around. It's the worst. It might be the noisiest tool. Jack hammers um create a noise at about a hundred and thirty decibels from what this article says. Yeah, that is the that is the sound of a jet engine taking off. That's how that's how loud those things are and driving here, no joke. I passed the dude using a jack camera and he wasn't wearing ear protection. You know. I was just about to say, is I bet you've never seen a jackhammer operator not use ear protection? I never have until today. That's nuts. Isn't that a weird coincidence? Though? It is totally weird and like just dumb. He's like screwed. I got health insurance. Uh, construction headphones are a must. Um. And because we're talking about how how much it wears you out. If you're on a road crew, Um, you're probably gonna be rotating out jackhammer duty. It's not like Chuck, You're on the jackhammer for ten hours today for the rest of your life. Yeah. Yeah, And it's a it's a real thing. Like people who use jackhammers as their profession, they do face a lot of problems. That dust is you know already mentioned that, but concrete has a silica and that's been proven to cause lung cancer, and so a lot of these jackhammers will have a like a water sprayer at the end of them that just constantly is introducing water that keeps the dust on the ground and like a puddle. All right, And what's the different or the deal with this. I know you didn't get a chance to look at it, but you sent a pretty interesting thing on the negative effects of vibration on the human body. Yeah, it's weird. What's the deal there? So vibrations are very odd. They used to belong in the realm of Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain. They did a lot of research in the effects of vibration on the body and it does everything from cause insomnia to digestive issues to motion sickness. And this is bad vibration. I mean there's also like good vibrations. There's also good, good, good vibrations. There's there's vibrations that that that that vibrated a certain frequency certain hurts and I don't remember what it is, but it's like a low it's like a low frequency vibration. And there's there's something called whole whole body vibration which UM. Apparently GM is dealing with the problem right now. They have like their their largest UM. I guess maybe they're tahoe or something, but they're large SUVs. They had to really strengthen the cage so that if it rolled over, it wouldn't crush the the bottom of the truck wouldn't crush the roof. But the thing is so rigid that when it goes at like highway speeds, it vibrates that this this frequency that's perfect and it's giving the driver's motion sickness. So yeah, there's all this weird stuff that happens from vibrations and exposure to vibrations, and so that's whole body. There's also hand arm vibration and um there's something called rayn nodes phenomenon and it's basically like your hands being exposed to vibrations for that many hours out of a day. And this can happen too if you're if you're working with like a gas powered weed whacker all the time, or but especially if jackhammer operators going to run into this, this circulation gets basically cut off from all the the exposure vibration in your fingers and it can get so bad, especially when it's cold out, that they just turn white. It's called blanching. They loosensation. If you're lucky, if you're not lucky, there's a tremendous amount of pain in them. You can't grip things. And if you're a jackhammer operator, that's a big problem because you need to be able to grip the jackhammer. Yeah. And um, I mean weird psychological issues brought on from like fatigue and that constant noise, headaches in the insomnia that can all lead to you know, you're kind of losing it a little bit. Uh. Yeah, you never really thought about that, all of it put together. It's called vibration sickness. And we're only now just starting to like really understand it. Uh. Shrapnel is also a danger, of course. Um. And and these are you know, if you're on a construction site, you know all this stuff. But since you can go out and rent a full fledged jackhammer because you want to take out your driveway this weekend, I think a lot of people go into it lightly. Like I've seen those things on the road. I can do that, be careful, like don't do it and flip flops or tennis shoes. You know, get get your big heavy hobnail boot. It's the great Larry Munson said, put those on. Get your ear protection where I protection, wear long pants and you know, don't be a dummy. It all seems like basic safety issues. But yeah, I bet you there's been a dude with short pants and a flip flops they tried to jackhammer something. Jack hammeron right there is it'll happen. Oh. They also important thing too. If you're doing this at home, um, and you don't like your sidewalk um that leads to your house, get the electrical and gas companies out there. And I don't even think they charged for it, or they might, but they'll they'll come out there with a little spray can and they will show you and draw paint on the ground where your gas lines and your power lines are. Because you do not want to jack cameront either of those not fun. Be careful, don't be a dummy. Well that's ours a huh. Jack hammers the most interesting tool on the on the planet. Oh. I actually got one more thing, believe it or not. What uh? In two thousand because these things are so loud, you know, Uh, the Department of Energies Brookhaven National Laboratory released a helium jack camera called the Raptor, and it had some of these things come with rubber boots to try and soften the noise, but I don't think they do a great job. Um this thing actually less than the noise to eighty seven decibels. That's like nothing, nothing, that's like how loud I'm talking right now. But apparently it never like caught on. Then in two thousand eleven, another equipment maker had an electric model that said it's faster than Newmatic and it's only a hundred decibles and they have sold a few. But apparently, like breaking into the construction industry with a new type of tool is super hard to do. I think in New York especially, they were very resistant. The unions were like, really won't work, We're not using those. That seems like where they should do it, because um I looked it up. Apparently six of noise complaints and from in New York City we're Jackhammers. That's almost thirty four thousand complaints in a year, Jack Camering, New York and supposally you're not supposed to do it after six or before seven am, but there they allow it in certain cases. And I feel like that is like, is all the case is chuck in a hotel nearby? Then do it started five that's all I got. Uh. If you want to know more about Jack Cameras, you can type that one word into the search bar at how stuff works dot com. And since I said Jack Camera, it's time for listener Now, I'm gonna call this cool program for kids in Austin, Texas. Oh yeah, I hope you guys are doing well. I've been listening to the show for for some time. Like to thank you for giving me the edge on many debates and discussions. I live in Austin, Texas and I'm writing today let you know about a program I recently started working for, but I think you'll appreciate. It's called a Totally Cool, Totally Art t C t A. It is a free after school program does to reach out to us youth and give them some exposure to the arts. The class I teach is called the Art of Machines, and we build various contraptions. We have sent you an example project, which we call bugs that the students building our class. Did we get this in yet? I don't think all right, I don't think i've seen this Brian so he sent it? Awhile ago, Oh he did? If you did, I don't know if we got it. No, we haven't got in yet. All right, So if it's recent Brian, then it's on the way. If not, then send it again. That was one of a kind. Uh see what you think about is the prototype? I hope not. He said, my dogs go crazy for these things. Uh. This is the actual anniversary of the program. We're trying to let people know about it so it can be around for another twenty years. We also have other classes painting, film, fiber arts, and photography. Anyway, I was just hoping maybe you'd give a quick shout out for totally cool totally art in Austin. It's so totally cool and you can just look that up on Google or go to uh h T T P S colon slash slash Austin Texas dot g O B slash t C t A. That's nice lass to secure site. Yeah that's from Brian fry Tag and good work, buddy. And we're gonna be in Austin for south By Southwest this year. Yeah. Do you know if they're if we're gonna be selling tickets or if there's like a registry or what. I don't know. We'll find out and let everyone know. But I believe it's going to our deal live podcasts going down Sunday night, and um, but we're gonna be around cool town cool look out for us Sunday night. Okay, indeed, uh. If you want to get in touch of this, you can tweek to us at s Y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know. You can send us an email to stuff Podcast at how stuff Works dot com and has always joined us with our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot Com. From more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff Works dot com. MHM

This episode is brought to you by square Space. Start building your website today at square space dot com. Enter our offer code stuff at check out to get ten percent off square Space. Build it beautiful. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, you're welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerry's over there, which means time for Stuff you should know. The Jackhammer edition coming at you. That's right, the most annoying, one of the most annoying sounds. I know you hate the leaf flower. Yeah, it's established. I think the leaf jack camera right there? If sure, Yeah, but we don't live in New York. If we lived in New York, jackhammera B number one. I feel like I've never stayed in a hotel in New York where there wasn't a jack below me, not even a chance. Every single time leaf blower. It's a lot more frequent down here in Atlanta than Jack Cameron. A lot of leaf blowers in New York City, not a lot of leaves. Well, that's not necessarily true. Been some where you are. Uh so we don't usually um shout out to thank you at the beginning of an episode. But we got a couple of gifts that are so special we want to do that. So Peter O'Donnell in the gang at built Sharp knives. B I LT Sharp out of Philly. H sent us sent me a chef's knife, sent you a filet knife. Beautiful and it's one of the most gorgeous pieces of like handmade craftsmanship I've ever seen. It's amazing. I cannot wait to catch a fish. Oh dude, I can't wait for that for you cut that thing open after it's dead. Uh really, you can't lock the head off while it's still alive, and you're supposed to. You're supposed to hit it with a hammer. I think some people do. Um, I do not. These things are gorgeous. I mean the blade itself, I mean they hand make these, the handle, the weight, it's just it's a piece of art. And not only that, it is the sharpest thing I've ever seen in my life. It's like dangerous. Um, well, I don't want to you know, it's dangerous. They're knives. They're supposed to be sharp, but wield it with respect. Well yeah, well they're respectable knives. Um. You can actually go into Tumbler. You can just search hashtag knives. You should know one word and it uh it chronicles and pictures and short captions or brief captions the process of them making our knives. It's awesome. Yeah, it's just really neat. And I just love like handcrafting and forging steel, like those are lost arts in a lot of ways, and um, they're doing it right man, They're really beautiful. So anyway, thank you, Yeah, thank you guys. Yeah, thanks people. Was really cool. So jack hammers, yeah, jack hammers. If they were sharpest built sharp knives, they'd be onto something. But I don't know if it would work quite the same not so. Um, yes, it's true, we are actually talking about jack hammers. And yes, it's true that jack hammers are about what you think they are. But they're also kind of interesting when you start to look into them, right yeah, well yes, so think about I didn't realize this. This article points it out. Jack hammer is a hammer and a chisel, but it's a hardcore hammer and chisel. Yeah, and it takes out of the equation largely the human who's back and shoulder muscles have to be involved in every single strike of that hammer. And chisel. You're talking John Henry and the sledge hammer. Yes, exactly, because prior to the advent of the jackhammer, about that fifties, by the turn of the last century, we had jack hammers kind of down pat um. It was sledge hammers and pick axes to remove rock. It was a real deal. That was like it killed people, like it literally could kill you with that kind of work. Yeah, I mean, mining is still a very dangerous job, but pre Industrial Revolution mining was no fun um, dangerous, deadly, and even if you didn't die, it's just brutal, brutal back baking work, baking work, slinging a sledgehammer. Yeah, you ever slung a sledge It's the worst. It's it's hard work. You ever used the jackhammer? No, I haven't. It's awful. Well, that's the thing. It's it's better than the sledgehammer. Yeah, well in some ways, but it's brutally difficult. It is. It's probably one of the most brutal tools you can use on any kind of site and for any kind of project. There aren't that many tools that they're they're gonna take as much out of you as the jackhammer. It's tough on your body. Yeah, because they weigh about a hundred pounds, like a new normal heavy duty jackhammer weighs about a hundred pounds. You have to hold it in place upright, because you don't want to jumping around, although it's probably not going to anyway. It's it's designed not to jump around, but you still have to. Um. You want to kind of keep it in a fairly confined area, which means you're using your muscle to steady it while it's going up and down at a very very fast rate. Some of those things, um impact with the ground one thousand times a minute. Yeah, it's tough. It's it's the only tool that and the hardwood floor UM skimmer, you know, like the orbital floor cleaner. You can use that on it, like put a standing pad on a hardwood floor, and that thing and the sledge hammer. The only time I've ever used tools that I felt like we're controlling me and not me, not controlling the tool until you get it. Once you get it, it's a little better. But at first, when you first start to use it. You can rent a jackhammer, you know, so you know, yeah, I mean, if you want to bust up your driveway, you can go do it yourself. If you're a fool, make sure that you don't need the driveway anymore before you do that. But um, once you get the hang of it, you kind of can wield it a little bit. But it's tough. I mean, it feels like I have no power or control over this thing, right, I can imagine you know. So, Um, it is a very difficult tool. But again, the alternative is early death. And the other alternative, which is to call someone to do it for you, is the best option of the three. But so, say that you are um, King Carlo Alberto of Sardinia and the years about eighteen thirty something eighteen forty, and you want a train tunnel built through a mountain, and the tunnel is gonna need to be twelve kilometers long. You do call somebody else, but that somebody else you call goes. I don't know what to tell you, buddy. We could try pick axes or whatever, but you're not still gonna be alive by the time we finished. What can we do? And actually, this call for a twelve kilometer long tunnel through a mountain in Sardinia prompted the early um, the early forays into developing pneumatic tools like a jackhammer. Yeah, in eighty eight it got named Jonathan Couch built a what he called a percussion drill, and this had a bit that was it went through the piston of a steam engine, so it was piston driven. Then, uh, contemporary Joseph Foul actually attached it to the piston and then he started in one using air which is pneumatic to power it. But these were still attached to a piston. And it wasn't until Charles Brady King when he actually has given credit for inventing the traditional looking handheld, modern pneumatic powered jackhammer. Right, and he gets a lot of credit for stuff that was already built. Like a lot of people say he was actually the inventor of the automobile. No he wasn't. Well, he was the inventor of the gasoline powered automobile, No he wasn't. He was the first guy in Detroit to build and drive one around, and he did end up inspiring and mentoring Ransom Olds and Henry Ford and some other early car manufacturers and is almost single handily responsible for making Detroit motor city. This guy, but he also Stanley right, Uh, and what's from with it's freely. I like that guy's stuff. What do you mean didn't he get kicked out of Kiss? Oh? I think he was sort of not invited back. Yeah. I think it's a money move. They don't have to pay the nameless other guitar player nearly as well. He was a founder of the band, Right, How do you get kicked out like that for money? I think Paul Stanley and Jean Simmons probably own Kiss Incorporated. I know anyway, Um, Charles Brady King, Uh, he wait Detroit on the map as far as auto manufacturer goes. And he did do a lot of refining of pneumatic tools, including the jackhammer, and he does hold the pattern, he did hold the patent for it. Yeah, and he had been at a lot of stuff. He was a sharp guy. And the pneumatic the fact that it's pneumatic, which means air powered, compressed air powered. Um is the reason why most jackhammers today are still compressed air powered. It's because of the mining application of it. Like when you mind, you're releasing a lot of potentially explosive gases, and uh, you can't have something like a steam engine that's combustion powered down there yeah, or you can't have an engine in there releasing exhaust. Um, and you can't have a jackhammer that will spark a rock. Um. Well, that might happen no matter what. Right, well, no, that's what I'm saying. You can't have that among volatile gases. Right You've air driven is the perfect key, because it doesn't matter if that hoses a thousand feet long, You're not gonna lose power because it's gonna be Yeah, it's gonna be compressed air up against compressed air, and up on the surface. You've got a diesel engine that's powering a piston, just like in your car, and the piston moves up and down the cylinder. As it moves down, it compresses the air in the cylinder and pushes it down into a storage tank where it sits his compressed air and that's released out the other end through the hose and it ends up into the jackhamer. And yeah, no matter how far away it is, it's still going to be just as powerful. And that compressed air is inflammable. So you can be a happy minor all the live long day. Well, buddy, you're getting excited. So that means we need to take a break and uh, put this pill under your tongue and we'll come back right after this. How you feeling now, Relax good? I love the title of this next section, Air powered destruction. Um. You can get an electric jack hammer. If you've ever gone to a hardware store, they have these kind of smaller handheld jack hammers that, um, you can take up like your bathroom floor tile pretty well with it plugging into the wall. Has a little chisel bit on the end of it. Um, But that's small. Beans. You can't do a driveway or concrete or asphalt with with something like that tunnel through a mountain in Sardinia. No, you need the big T shaped jack camera. And here's one of the things that didn't really occur to me. One of the reasons it works so well is because it's so heavy. Right. It's not like they say, well, let's make this thing way fifteen pounds or twenty pounds and make it easier to run, which they probably could. Yeah, you maybe could do that, but it would jump all over the place. Yeah, you want that thing super super heavy because that's part of the power and forced behind it. That's right. So these things are pneumatic, right, and just like on the compressed air compressor up on the surface. When you're down in the mine, they actually have a jackhammer, has a piston in a piston in a cylinder in it, right, and it's it's actually a really kind of simple When you cut the thing open and draw a cross section of it, which we did on our hands for crib sheets. Um, you you you can see that. Really the whole mechanism comes down to a trigger valve, right, that's right. So what you have here is you got the pressure chamber. The compressed air enters that chamber activates the trigger valve, and it just because of the compressed air opens and shuts really fast, right, and so the trigger valve moves the air either above the piston or when it closes, the air goes down below the piston, which means chisel goes up, chizzle goes down, right, because the piston is striking the top of that chisel bit, driving it downward when the compressed air comes in and pushes the piston down. And then when the valve closes and the air goes underneath the piston, there's also a spring in there that brings the drill bit back up because it wouldn't work very well if you knock it down. They had to go down and reset it, and apparently the earliest um, the earliest jackhammered had that very designature that was it like it goes bam and then you definitely like reset it bam and then reset it and they're like, this isn't gonna work. Yeah, that's sort of like the pneumatic cattle punch that they that what's his face used in No Country for old Man. It's exactly like that. Not very good if you're trying to bust up concrete, but good if you want to put on a cow's It doesn't stunn them. It does the eternal stunt. I think it's stuns a cow and then they kill them. Oh I thought it they put it into the brain to kill the cow. I don't think he actually, I think it can and probably does sometimes, but I think the main purpose of it is to stun the cow, so it's not like it's just dazed and out of it when it when they kill it. Oh yeah yeah. Uh. Hydraulic jack hammers, it's the same, uh jackhammera would kill a cow. Hydraulics use fluid, same principle, but it doesn't use air. And if you've ever seen the they have jackhammers you can that are really large that you can't handle as a person. That it's like attached to a bacco or something that's for big, big jobs. And those are usually um hydraulic and pneumatic, but probably not every time. I'm sure someone in the construction industry will correct me on that. Well, I went and looked. And if you go on Alibaba that you know that's I has everything and they have hydraulic jackhammers for sale. What's Ali Baba? That sky Mall it's like China's Amazon, but they sell everything on it. It's nothing like Skymall. Do you think everything's like Skymallas because you want Skymall to come back? That sure do? Um, But they it did seem like all of the back ho attached um jack hammers were hydraulic that I saw. All right, Well, um, here's what happens at a thousand hits per minute. That chisel bit and if you're breaking up rock, there are different kinds of bits. A pointy bit if you're breaking up like a driveway or something is really good, or you can use a flat bit for other applications. So, yeah, if you're breaking up a driveway and all you want is for the driveway to go bye by, Yeah, the pointy bits the one you want because it's not a controlled cut. The the like a flathead screw drivers style bit is the kind that where you can really kind of control where the cracking goes, right, or if you wanna uh, like I said, if you're taking up your floor tile and you have the handheld version, that's what you want to discoot it underneath the tile and chip it up. And there's actually there's like, um, some insane mathematicians have actually like tried to figure out how you can predict how cracks propagate. Yeah, there's like a um for the most efficient jackhammering pretty much like what bit will work best, and like where to place it and how to how to use it. But um, one of the things that I didn't understand before is that when you are jackhammering, you you are creating different types of uh uh flaws basically in this solid stay concrete structure, right, And when you're doing that, the first flaw you're doing, the first flaw you're creating is this um kind of surface powder that the the initial chips you're making are actually powder rizing and and congealing around the drill bit, right, and that powder actually transmit it's the impact of the jackhammer throughout the rest of the concrete pad in that immediate area, and that actually starts to create cracks. So you think, well, it's just the drill bit creating crack it gets in there enough. Actually no, it's it's generating like these different materials from the very concrete itself, and it's using those materials to distribute the force and create cracks that ultimately start to spread and propagate. And as they spread and propagate, they get bigger and bigger, and then a chip comes off, and when the chip comes off, the amount of force that's generated and there goes down again and you have to build it back up by more jackhammering. But eventually these larger cracks that you're making come together and then big chunks break off. And then when a big chunk breaks off, you want somebody to come in and clear the chunks away while you move the jackhammer, because you're just gonna be breaking up those chunks. And that's not the point of jackhammer anymore. Now. The point is you're trying to remove whatever material in his bigger pieces can be removed, you know, like by like a bacco with a bucket or something. Um. Obviously it can't be too big because you might have to break up in the smaller bits. But you don't want a three million little tiny rocks at the end of it, right, you're not breaking it into gravel. No. The machines that do that, um, some of these things actually uh, when when you create a crater, that's good, but you don't want your crater full of junk. So some of them actually have air or water that blasts the stuff clear as you're going, which is pretty neat too. Yeah, which is a it's a big that's an issue because the stuff that that dust that accumulates, that forms what's called the crushed zone, that powder that distributes the force um is actually can be a health hazard. And there's actually a lot of health hazards with jackhammers. Uh. And we'll talk about them right after this, all right, Josh, health hazards of jackhammering. Um, that dust is no joke. Well, before we go to health hazards, let me say this. What you and actually can be a health hazard. It can be dangerous when you get your bit stuck. Um. And the general rule of thumb is you don't want to put the bit farther down. You don't want to keep going down farther than the length of the bit, because if you get your bit stuck, then it's really tough to get back out. Yeah. And while it may give you a little break, your boss isn't gonna be happy, or if you're renting that thing by the hour at your house, you're not gonna be happy. Yeah, because you just used all of the force of that compressed air to jam that that chisel bit several inches into concrete. Yes, it's you need like King Arthur to get that out. Yea, So moving around um inches at a time, so it doesn't go straight down into one spot. And you want a sharp bit as well. Obviously a dull bit is gonna get stuck easier and it's not going to break up the material as well, exactly. Um. And like you said at the beginning that jackhammers one of the noisiest tools around. It's the worst. It might be the noisiest tool. Jack hammers um create a noise at about a hundred and thirty decibels from what this article says. Yeah, that is the that is the sound of a jet engine taking off. That's how that's how loud those things are and driving here, no joke. I passed the dude using a jack camera and he wasn't wearing ear protection. You know. I was just about to say, is I bet you've never seen a jackhammer operator not use ear protection? I never have until today. That's nuts. Isn't that a weird coincidence? Though? It is totally weird and like just dumb. He's like screwed. I got health insurance. Uh, construction headphones are a must. Um. And because we're talking about how how much it wears you out. If you're on a road crew, Um, you're probably gonna be rotating out jackhammer duty. It's not like Chuck, You're on the jackhammer for ten hours today for the rest of your life. Yeah. Yeah, And it's a it's a real thing. Like people who use jackhammers as their profession, they do face a lot of problems. That dust is you know already mentioned that, but concrete has a silica and that's been proven to cause lung cancer, and so a lot of these jackhammers will have a like a water sprayer at the end of them that just constantly is introducing water that keeps the dust on the ground and like a puddle. All right, And what's the different or the deal with this. I know you didn't get a chance to look at it, but you sent a pretty interesting thing on the negative effects of vibration on the human body. Yeah, it's weird. What's the deal there? So vibrations are very odd. They used to belong in the realm of Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain. They did a lot of research in the effects of vibration on the body and it does everything from cause insomnia to digestive issues to motion sickness. And this is bad vibration. I mean there's also like good vibrations. There's also good, good, good vibrations. There's there's vibrations that that that that vibrated a certain frequency certain hurts and I don't remember what it is, but it's like a low it's like a low frequency vibration. And there's there's something called whole whole body vibration which UM. Apparently GM is dealing with the problem right now. They have like their their largest UM. I guess maybe they're tahoe or something, but they're large SUVs. They had to really strengthen the cage so that if it rolled over, it wouldn't crush the the bottom of the truck wouldn't crush the roof. But the thing is so rigid that when it goes at like highway speeds, it vibrates that this this frequency that's perfect and it's giving the driver's motion sickness. So yeah, there's all this weird stuff that happens from vibrations and exposure to vibrations, and so that's whole body. There's also hand arm vibration and um there's something called rayn nodes phenomenon and it's basically like your hands being exposed to vibrations for that many hours out of a day. And this can happen too if you're if you're working with like a gas powered weed whacker all the time, or but especially if jackhammer operators going to run into this, this circulation gets basically cut off from all the the exposure vibration in your fingers and it can get so bad, especially when it's cold out, that they just turn white. It's called blanching. They loosensation. If you're lucky, if you're not lucky, there's a tremendous amount of pain in them. You can't grip things. And if you're a jackhammer operator, that's a big problem because you need to be able to grip the jackhammer. Yeah. And um, I mean weird psychological issues brought on from like fatigue and that constant noise, headaches in the insomnia that can all lead to you know, you're kind of losing it a little bit. Uh. Yeah, you never really thought about that, all of it put together. It's called vibration sickness. And we're only now just starting to like really understand it. Uh. Shrapnel is also a danger, of course. Um. And and these are you know, if you're on a construction site, you know all this stuff. But since you can go out and rent a full fledged jackhammer because you want to take out your driveway this weekend, I think a lot of people go into it lightly. Like I've seen those things on the road. I can do that, be careful, like don't do it and flip flops or tennis shoes. You know, get get your big heavy hobnail boot. It's the great Larry Munson said, put those on. Get your ear protection where I protection, wear long pants and you know, don't be a dummy. It all seems like basic safety issues. But yeah, I bet you there's been a dude with short pants and a flip flops they tried to jackhammer something. Jack hammeron right there is it'll happen. Oh. They also important thing too. If you're doing this at home, um, and you don't like your sidewalk um that leads to your house, get the electrical and gas companies out there. And I don't even think they charged for it, or they might, but they'll they'll come out there with a little spray can and they will show you and draw paint on the ground where your gas lines and your power lines are. Because you do not want to jack cameront either of those not fun. Be careful, don't be a dummy. Well that's ours a huh. Jack hammers the most interesting tool on the on the planet. Oh. I actually got one more thing, believe it or not. What uh? In two thousand because these things are so loud, you know, Uh, the Department of Energies Brookhaven National Laboratory released a helium jack camera called the Raptor, and it had some of these things come with rubber boots to try and soften the noise, but I don't think they do a great job. Um this thing actually less than the noise to eighty seven decibels. That's like nothing, nothing, that's like how loud I'm talking right now. But apparently it never like caught on. Then in two thousand eleven, another equipment maker had an electric model that said it's faster than Newmatic and it's only a hundred decibles and they have sold a few. But apparently, like breaking into the construction industry with a new type of tool is super hard to do. I think in New York especially, they were very resistant. The unions were like, really won't work, We're not using those. That seems like where they should do it, because um I looked it up. Apparently six of noise complaints and from in New York City we're Jackhammers. That's almost thirty four thousand complaints in a year, Jack Camering, New York and supposally you're not supposed to do it after six or before seven am, but there they allow it in certain cases. And I feel like that is like, is all the case is chuck in a hotel nearby? Then do it started five that's all I got. Uh. If you want to know more about Jack Cameras, you can type that one word into the search bar at how stuff works dot com. And since I said Jack Camera, it's time for listener Now, I'm gonna call this cool program for kids in Austin, Texas. Oh yeah, I hope you guys are doing well. I've been listening to the show for for some time. Like to thank you for giving me the edge on many debates and discussions. I live in Austin, Texas and I'm writing today let you know about a program I recently started working for, but I think you'll appreciate. It's called a Totally Cool, Totally Art t C t A. It is a free after school program does to reach out to us youth and give them some exposure to the arts. The class I teach is called the Art of Machines, and we build various contraptions. We have sent you an example project, which we call bugs that the students building our class. Did we get this in yet? I don't think all right, I don't think i've seen this Brian so he sent it? Awhile ago, Oh he did? If you did, I don't know if we got it. No, we haven't got in yet. All right, So if it's recent Brian, then it's on the way. If not, then send it again. That was one of a kind. Uh see what you think about is the prototype? I hope not. He said, my dogs go crazy for these things. Uh. This is the actual anniversary of the program. We're trying to let people know about it so it can be around for another twenty years. We also have other classes painting, film, fiber arts, and photography. Anyway, I was just hoping maybe you'd give a quick shout out for totally cool totally art in Austin. It's so totally cool and you can just look that up on Google or go to uh h T T P S colon slash slash Austin Texas dot g O B slash t C t A. That's nice lass to secure site. Yeah that's from Brian fry Tag and good work, buddy. And we're gonna be in Austin for south By Southwest this year. Yeah. Do you know if they're if we're gonna be selling tickets or if there's like a registry or what. I don't know. We'll find out and let everyone know. But I believe it's going to our deal live podcasts going down Sunday night, and um, but we're gonna be around cool town cool look out for us Sunday night. Okay, indeed, uh. If you want to get in touch of this, you can tweek to us at s Y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know. You can send us an email to stuff Podcast at how stuff Works dot com and has always joined us with our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot Com. From more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff Works dot com. MHM