Above: James Nelson Warrington (1860-1933) was probably the most accomplished designer of pile driving equipment in the company's history, with the Warrington-Vulcan hammers, California hammers, Vulcan pile extractors, and many other designs and inventions. This photo was taken the year before his death.

His ill health forced him to leave Chicago and live in Los Angeles, California. It was there in 1911 that he developed the "California G" hammer (U.S. Patenbts 1,019,386 and 1,020,467) It was a major departure from the rest of the Vulcan line in that it was a closed hammer, it provided downward assist for the ram, and it used the steam expansively ("compound acting"), something no production Vulcan hammer did before or since (although the single-compound hammer did on an experimental basis.)

The "G" hammer was produced until it was discontinued in 1951. It was replaced by the DGH-100 hammer. A "G" hammer is shown below driving wood sheet piling in northern Indiana.

After his brother William's death, he assumed "remote control" of the business from California. This situation was repeated in the 1960's when the executive office was relocated to Florida for basically the same reason. This tended to give the employees left behind a great deal of autonomy, which created a contentious situation when the new generation took command (this too repeated itself in the late 1970's.)

James' death ended the Warrington family's second generation's control of the business, which had spanned almost a half century. It then passed to his nephew Chester, although he was busy with other things when this happened. He returned from Washington to Chicago to assume full command in 1940.

The "California G" hammer. With its 100 pound ram, it was ideal for smaller jobs. Its relatively low velocity ram focused its intended use on small pile driving. The "plumbing" on the left was for operating the hammer at the hammer itself.

As James Warrington had envisioned from the beginning, the California concept was intended to be used on larger hammers. Below is the "California E" hammer, which was designed to run in leaders. None of the other California hammers matched the popularity of the "G." After World War II, Vulcan attempted to expand the DGH line in similar fashion with the DGH-900, but this attempt was if anything less successful than the "E."