Metal fabrication and the machinery used in such could be considered manly, and for good reason. When I consider the machinery and process a quote by Tim Allen comes to mind.
“Argh Argh Argh”.
Those of you who are familiar with Tim The Tool Man Taylor understand that. Those of you who don’t…well…you need to pick up a copy of the show and broaden your horizons. Great stuff.
But even as I can relate to the Tool Man and consider myself a man’s man, I must admit something.
I’m a big fan of another show. Quite the fanatic actually.
The Gilmore Girls.
Yep, I admit it and am so confident in my manliness that I admit it with no reservations and with considerable pride.
Now that I got that off my chest, I can move forward with my point. You see the other night I was watching an episode and the main character Lorelai said something in jest that actually got me to thinking.
She said “What happened to all the anvils in the world”. Hmmm….. Interesting question if you think about it. She then goes on to talk about how you saw them all the time in old westerns, old west TV shows, and of course Looney Tunes as Wile E Coyote seemed to have an endless supply of them and went through them as if they were an everyday disposable.
So I turned to my good friend Google and started digging.
With the advent of welding technology, which we’ve covered before, anvils fell out of use as the primary tool for metal working, a tool that predates history actually. It might even predate humanity as chimpanzees have been seen using a log as an anvil and a stone as the striker to open hard to crack nuts.
Today they are only used for some custom one off work and are essential for farriers.
But I have a theory of where the anvils went.
In the air!!
I’m talking about anvil firing. Very interesting, anvil firing. It has been used as a source of celebration for many years, kind of like fireworks.
Here is the concept. One takes an anvil and turns it upside down. This is used as the base. The concave in the bottom of the anvil is filled with black powder (not gunpowder as it is to powerful). Then another anvil is place on top of it right side up as the “flier”. A wick is used, sparks fly, and the anvil is launched sometimes hundreds of feet in the air. It was commonplace in the southern United States and is actually approximated in the movie “Sweet Home Alabama”.
Although there are many variations today of the practice, the general concept is the same. This sounds like fun to me and thus proves my own manliness.
What’s more manly than blowing stuff up!!