The Forgotten Tool of Carnivals: What Was This 15lb Beast Really Used For?
September 10, 2024
source: reddit
The pictured large wooden maul in this 15 pound with a 30-inch handle is a powerful tool which could have been used in heavy work such as driving large wooden stakes into the ground. Wooden mauls like this one were used in the past in order to set up tents for carnivals or circuses and the like, for which their weight and force were required in order to drive stakes into the ground.
Besides being a useful tool, this tool reflects the archetypal “test your strength” hammers that one may see at fairs where there is a lever to strike in order to push a weight and ring a bell. It’s possible that a maul like this could have served dual purposes: People of all ages have use them in their daily activities to work and for leisure. This maul, made of wood and built sturdy for a large heavy duty tool, is perfect for the hard work that was done in prior eras of heavy manual labor before the use of machinery.
Tools such as these are both cumbersome and yet serve as a constant physical representation of the amount of work that was required in the past to perform tasks which can now be completed in a matter of minutes with the help of machines. When you hold one of these mauls it makes you feel how strength and energy was needed in the past for work or even as entertainment.