In 1848 an explosion drove a three-foot-seven iron bar clean through the skull of railway foreman Phineas Gage, who stayed conscious, spoke within minutes, and lived nearly twelve more years

In 1848 an explosion drove a three-foot-seven iron bar clean through the skull of railway foreman Phineas Gage, who stayed conscious, spoke within minutes, and lived nearly twelve more years

On the afternoon of 13 September 1848, on a rail line being cut through Cavendish, Vermont, a foreman named Phineas Gage was packing blasting powder into a hole drilled in rock. The tool in his hands was a tamping iron, three feet seven inches long, an inch and a quarter thick at its widest, and weighing thirteen and a quarter pounds. He looked away for a moment, the iron struck a spark, and the powder went off. The bar entered point first below…