THE ORIGINS OF PHRASES Did you ever wonder where some of our commonly used phrases came from? Most of them sprang up as part of the vernacular of whatever industry they were used in. For instance, in the early days of manufacturing when factory machinery was operated from line shafts, the term “Bull of the Woods” came to be used in reference to a person’s boss or company owner. It came from the fact that if you were running a machine on the manufacturing floor, and you looked up and saw the boss coming, he looked somewhat like a bull coming through the woods, particularly if he was mad about something and was coming to put things right! Mining had it’s share of catch phrases, too. Some that are mentioned frequently at the Western Museum of Mining and Industry are listed here with a brief description of their origins: The Real McCoy: Elijah McCoy was the son of a pair of slaves who had come north along the underground railroad and after arriving in an area where slavery was not practiced, they made enough money to send Elijah to Europe to go to school. When he returned to the U.S. however, he could not find a job other than as an oiler, and soon he invented a drip oiler to make oiling the machinery of the day easier. It worked very well, and it soon became general knowledge that if you wanted the best drip oiler available, you needed “The Real McCoy!” Sticky Fingers: Although we take our present day monetary system for granted, in the early days of our country, there were many different currencies around, and in some places there was no paper or coin money at all. A good example of these places would be mining camps, especially in their early days of existence. There the medium of exchange was often gold dust from the purchaser’s poke ( or purse). An unscrupulous merchant would sometimes distract his customer long enough for the merchant to run his fingers through his slicked back hair just before the gold dust exchange took place. This caused more gold to stick to his fingers than if they had been dry. Soon people would become aware of this and the merchant would get a reputation for having “Sticky Fingers”! “Balls to the Wall” has come to mean going as fast as you can because of the way fly ball governors work. As the speed of a steam engine would increase, the balls on it’s governor would be flung farther and farther outward by centrifugal force until they reached the point at which they would cause the steam inlet valves to slow down the engine. Since the balls were firmly attached to the governor drive (you hoped!), it would only let them go so far out and then they would stop as if they had hit a wall. Also they would look like they were as close to the nearest wall as possible, hence the term “Balls to the Wall” “The Can”. Have you ever referred to going to the bathroom as going to the can? In the days before electric lights were widely available, and before miners used electric lights, acetylene miner’s lamps and home lights were the way to go. Acetylene would be delivered to your house or your mine in 3 gallon cans. When they were empty, they quite often found a second use as chamber pots in houses and as early day “Porta- Potties” in mines. Of course you had to be sure all the acetylene was gone if you used one in this fashion in a mine, lest you earn the nickname “Hot Cheeks”!