Signalman Jack: The Baboon Who Worked for the Railroad—and Never Made a Mistake








Signalman Jack: The Baboon Who Worked for the Railroad—and Never Made a Mistake

One day in the 1880s, a peg-legged railway signalman named James Edwin Wide was visiting a buzzing South African market when he witnessed something surreal: A chacma baboon driving an oxcart. Impressed by the primate’s skills, Wide bought him, named him Jack, and made him his pet and personal assistant.

Wide needed the help. Years earlier, he had lost both his legs in a work accident, which made his half-mile commute to the train station extremely difficult for him. So the first thing he trained the primate to do was push him to and from work in a small trolley. Soon, Jack was also helping with household chores, sweeping floors and taking out the trash.

But the signal box is where Jack truly shined. As trains approached the rail switches at the Uitenhage train station, they’d toot their whistle a specific number of times to alert the signalman which tracks to change. By watching his owner, Jack picked up the pattern and started tugging on the levers himself.

Soon, Wide was able to kick back and relax as his furry helper did all of the work switching the rails. According to The Railway Signal, Wide “trained the baboon to such perfection that he was able to sit in his cabin stuffing birds, etc., while the animal, which was chained up outside, pulled all the levers and points.”

As the story goes, one day a posh train passenger staring out the window saw that a baboon, and not a human, was manning the gears and complained to railway authorities. Rather than fire Wide, the railway managers decided to resolve the complaint by testing the baboon’s abilities. They came away astounded.

“Jack knows the signal whistle as well as I do, also every one of the levers,” wrote railway superintendent George B. Howe, who visited the baboon sometime around 1890. “It was very touching to see his fondness for his master. As I drew near they were both sitting on the trolley. The baboon’s arms round his master’s neck, the other stroking Wide’s face.”

Jack was reportedly given an official employment number, and was paid 20 cents a day and half a bottle of beer weekly. Jack passed away in 1890, after developing tuberculosis. He worked the rails for nine years without ever making a mistake—evidence that perfectionism may be more than just a human condition.


We hope that you have enjoyed reading our blog on the "From Yesterday to Tomorrow: Exploring the Journey of History". If you enjoy this blog please let us know in the comments below. If you are interested in history, we recommend you check out our other blogs here on the "From Yesterday to Tomorrow: Exploring the Journey of History". Thank you for reading.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Battle of Bamber Bridge Jun 24, 1943 – Jun 25, 1943

Image
More history you were never taught in school. Battle of Bamber Bridge Jun 24, 1943 – Jun 25, 1943 On this day in 1943 black American soldiers faced off with white American Military police during World War II on British soil. Yes you read correctly black American soldiers had to fight their own white American soldiers, while in England, where they were fighting for the world. Why? Because the English town of Bamber Bridge in Lancashire was not segregated so they treated the black soldiers like all other races, aka blacks were free to eat, drink anywhere, BUT back in America segregation of blacks and whites still existed. So essentially the American army went to someone else’s country and demanded they adopted America’s racist practices So when the American Military police found out that their own black American soldiers were drinking at the same pubs as white people they went in to arrest them. The people in the town got mad about the treatment of the black soldiers and decided to then
Read more

STORY BEHIND THE PICTURE: ARMY MEDIC JAMES E. CALLAHAN!

Image
STORY BEHIND THE PICTURE: ARMY MEDIC JAMES E. CALLAHAN! REMEMBERING ONE OF OUR HEROES! Some of you may have seen this iconic picture before. The picture is of James E. Callahan was considered one of the most famous pictures taken during the Vietnam War.  Photographer Henri Huet captured a young medic trying to save the lives of his buddies in the midst of machine gun fire on 17 June 1967.  It was not just that which made this a remarkable picture, it was the look on Callahan’s face that told the entire heart wrenching story. A story of desperation and helplessness of sadness and loss. Arguably, the quintessential story of Vietnam. In the picture, Callahan was trying to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dying Solider.  The battle was three-hour battle long and took place approximately 50 miles northeast of Saigon. Callahan treated numerous fellow Soldiers injuries during the battle.  During the guerrilla ambush on the 1st Infantry Division on that day, thirty-one Soldiers were kill
Read more

Eye-opening photos of executions torturers from Nazi camp

Image
Eye-opening photos of executions torturers from Nazi camp The Holocaust is a dark chapter in human history, and the atrocities committed during that time are almost incomprehensible. However, one aspect that is often overlooked is the punishment meted out to the perpetrators of those crimes. A recently discovered collection of photographs provides a glimpse into the executions of Nazi war criminals, many of whom were responsible for running the concentration camps where millions of innocent people were murdered. These photographs serve as a reminder that even in the darkest of times, justice will be served. They also serve as a warning to all those who would engage in similar conduct in the future that there will be consequences for their actions. The release of these photographs is also a call to action. It is important that we never forget the past, and that we continue to hold those accountable for their actions, regardless of the passage of time. The Holocaust is a reminder o
Read more

The Public Execution of the President of Liberia William Tolbert and his Cabinet, 1980.

Image
The Public Execution of the President of Liberia William Tolbert and his Cabinet, 1980. 10 years before Liberia's President Samuel Doe met his fate - also a gruesome televised torture and murder - then known as Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, he had presided over the public execution of members of the Cabinet he had just overthrown. In 1847, with the support of US President Monroe and subsequent US Governments uneasy with the growing population of freed slaves in America, emancipated former African-American slaves settled in Africa and declared the territory the Independent republic of Liberia. Between 1847 and 1980 the State of Liberia was dominated by the minority Americo-Liberians who then marginalized the majority native Liberians with whom they had uneasy relations with, viewing them as an 'inferior' race and treating them much the same as the ex-slaves had been treated in America.  Brutal Americo-Liberian State repression, plantation quasi-slavery, economic and social mar
Read more

🇺🇲 Vietnam War Stories: Honoring the Heroes We Lost: Master Sergeant Jerry M. Shriver

Image
🇺🇲 Vietnam War Stories: Honoring the Heroes We Lost: Master Sergeant Jerry M. Shriver Master Sergeant Jerry M. "Mad Dog" Shriver was a legendary Green Beret. He was a platoon leader with Command and Control South, MACV-SOG.  MACV-SOG was a joint service high command unconventional warfare task force engaged in highly classified operations throughout Southeast Asia.  On the morning of April 24, 1969, Shriver's platoon was dropped into Cambodia by four helicopters. Upon departing the helicopter, the team had begun moving toward its initial target point when it came under heavy volumes of enemy fire from several machine gun bunkers and entrenched enemy positions estimated to be at least a company-sized element. Shriver was last seen by the company commander, Captain Paul D. Cahill, as Shriver was moving against the machine gun bunkers and entering a tree line on the southwest edge of the LZ with a trusted Montagnard striker. Captain Cahill and Sergeant Ernest C. Jamison, t
Read more

Most Radioactive Man' Kept Alive For 83 Days As He 'Cried Blood' And Skin Melted

Image
Most Radioactive Man' Kept Alive For 83 Days As He 'Cried Blood' And Skin Melted On September 30, 1999, Hisashi Ouchi was exposed to the highest dose of nuclear radiation in human history. A 35-year-old lab technician at the nuclear plant in Tokaimura, Japan, Ouchi was mixing a uranium solution by hand directly over an open container when he accidentally poured in too much uranium, immediately causing a violent explosion.  For the next 83 days, Ouchi suffered unimaginable agony as the radiation worked its way through his body, obliterating his DNA and causing his skin to melt off and his eyes to weep blood before he finally died.  He begged for death, doctors refused to listen and kept him alive against his will for nearly three excruciating months.  More than 20 years ago, a freak chemical reaction at a power plant in Japan left one of its technicians living in agony, kept alive by doctors as he 'cried blood' and his 'skin melted'. Hisashi Ouchi was he
Read more

Remembering Pascal Cleatus Poolaw, Sr., the most decorated Native American soldier in U.S. history

Image
Remembering Pascal Cleatus Poolaw, Sr., the most decorated Native American soldier in U.S. history - 4 Silver Stars, 5 Bronze Stars 3 Purple Hearts. He earned a total of 42 medals and citations.  Born on January 29, 1922, in Apache, Oklahoma, Poolaw, a full-blooded Kiowa, served with the United States Army in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Poolaw, his father and two brothers joined the Armed forces in 1942 during World War II. He earned his first Purple Heart when he was wounded in September 1944. While serving with the 8th Infantry Regiment's M Company near Recogne, Belgium, Poolaw's unit was engaging fire with the Germans.  He pushed his unit forward under heavy fire and hurled hand grenades at enemy machine guns, causing numerous enemy casualties and as a result of his heroic actions, many of his comrades lives were saved and the company was able to continue the attack and capture strongly defended enemy positions. Poolaw's military career did not end
Read more

Medal of Honor recipient Army Lieutenant Colonel Rascon: “I was always an American in my heart.”

Image
Medal of Honor recipient Army Lieutenant Colonel Rascon: “I was always an American in my heart.” (Post Picture) “Two American soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade help Alfred Rascon, a four-time wounded medic from a reconnaissance platoon. Thirty years later, Rascon received the Medal of Honor.  Mexican-born Medal of Honor recipient Alfred Rascon was once asked about his courage on the battlefield fighting for America even though he had yet to become a citizen. “I was always an American in my heart,” said Rascon. Alfred Rascon’s story started when he immigrated with his parents to the United States from Mexico when he was just a toddler. He grew up in the town of Oxnard, not far from Los Angeles. As a child, Alfred saw many servicemen from different military branches visiting Oxnard during the Korean War. He read Sergeant Rock comic books, played with plastic soldiers and pretended to be an airman, once jumping off the roof of his house and breaking his wrist.  After graduating hig
Read more

THE OTAKU MURDERER

Image
In late August 1988, the parents of missing four-year-old Mari Konno received a box in the mail. Inside the box, on a bed of fine powder, was a photo of the outfit Mari had been wearing when she disappeared, several small teeth, and a postcard bearing a message: “Mari. Cremated. Bones. Investigate. Prove.” This horrifying box of clues would be one of several that tortured families around Tokyo, Japan would receive as they searched for their young children. But these girls would never return home, as they had fallen victim to the twisted mind of Tsutomu Miyazaki, the Otaku Murderer. Though he grew up to be one of Japan’s most sadistic killers, Miyazaki started out as a meek and quiet child. Born prematurely in August of 1962 with a birth defect that rendered him unable to bend his wrists completely, Miyazaki spent most of his early childhood alone as the victim of bullying for his deformity. Miyazaki kept to himself and rarely participated in social events or made many friends. He often
Read more

The Lost Soldier Mine

Image
The Lost Soldier Mine It was in 1869, that Abner McKeever and his family were attacked by a large band of Apache warriors. The McKeever ranch was located at Gila Bend and a long distance away from the protection of Fort Lowell and Fort McDowell. At the end of the raid, the Apache made away with over 20 head of horses, 6 rifles, ammunition, clothes, food and sadly Belle McKeever as well. Abners very own daughter.  After the Apache had left the now destroyed ranch, Abner rode out to Maricopa Wells which was not far away. Maricopa Wells was a popular and reliable watering hole with many pools of fresh ground water. Stagecoaches, mail carriers, miners, travelers and even soldiers frequented Maricopa Wells. As Abner entered the small population of Maricopa Wells he told his story with great emotion and urged every able man to take up arms and help him retrieve his daughter.  Over 15 soldiers were posted to guard the Wells and 6 joined Abner, as well as 5 miners. As the posse began the pursu
Read more