News // 28.10.2020

Why is our newsletter called the Jerk Wire?

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‘Whistle punk’ is an obsolete term for a beginner lumberjack from the early days of North American logging. The main tool of their trade wasn't an axe, but a cable.

As a beginner lumberjack, the whistle punk’s job was to operate the whistle on a steam-powered winch that dragged freshly-felled logs to the river or road to be taken away.

The whistle punk was a go-between. They would string out a thin steel cable (aka “jerk wire”), attached to a steam whistle on the winch.

They got as close to the lumberjacks as the jerk wire allowed, often threading it through the broken-off necks of beer bottles wedged in the crooks of branches to help it slide freely. That wire could be half a kilometre long, so the less friction the better.

When a lumberjack shouted that a log was ready to be winched, the whistle punk gave the signal with a series of tugs on the jerk wire. This sounded the whistle back at the engine, telling the operator to fire up the winch.

Get this wrong and they either had no log on the end of the line or, worse, lumberjacks caught in the deadly path of a huge log being winched too early.

The jerk wire was the important connection to the action which was often far away, out of sight and out of earshot. The whistle punk used the jerk wire to let the crew know what was happening.

Quite the responsibility.

We plan to use our version of the jerk wire in the same way. We’ll use it to let you know what’s coming over the horizon. Things, thoughts and inspiration around topics that we reckon you’ll be into. We might even chuck some axe throwing hints and tips in there.

No-one’s in danger if we get it wrong, but we still see it as a great responsibility. It won’t be perfect, but we welcome your feedback and we’ll be doing our best to make it a little better every week.

Go ahead and let us know if we’re hitting the bullseye or scoring a whole lot of nothing.

Like any brave beginner, we’ll keep at it.

You can sign up to the Whistle Punks Jerk Wire by heading to the bottom of the page, or by selecting ticking the box when you book tickets.

Words: Staff Writer

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