The Vulcan steam hammer (the use of air came later) began when the company began to manufacture hammers under the patent of Thomas T. Loomis (U.S. Patent 160,781) in 1875. This hammer used many of the main features of the Naysmith hammer (which had been developed in the UK) but used an improved valve gear. Below: Loomis hammer, from its patent drawings.

The success of this hammer led to an improved hammer under the patents of Thomas M. Skinner, who reduced the number of parts and used a steam actuated valve. (The Skinner Hammer is shown at the right.) This hammer had success, as the following letter (written the year after Vulcan was incorporated) shows:

CHICAGO & ALTON RAILROAD COMPANY,
OFFICE OF GENERAL ROADMASTER,
BLOOMINGTON, ILL., Oct. 30, 1882

W. H. WARRINGTON, ESQ., President Vulcan Iron Works

DEAR SIR

The Skinner Pile Driver Hammer, built by your Company, has been in use on our Pile Driver Car since last April, and we are much pleased with its work. It has always given entire satisfaction, doing the work effectively and economically.

Respectfully yours,

W. RILEY,
Gen'l Roadmaster .

The Skinner Hammer was not perfect. Its steam actuated valve was a source of difficulties, a problem that did not end with the Skinner Hammer (Menck hammers also had difficulties with steam or air actuated valves, especially when used with rubber-lined hose where the hose pieces would jam the valve.) To address this and other problems, the first "Warrington-Vulcan" single-acting steam hammer, a #2 with a ram weight of 3,000 lbs., was designed and built in 1887. James N. Warrington was granted a patent on this hammer in 1888 (U.S. Patent 378,745).

The success of this hammer prompted the immediate development of the #1 hammer, with a 5,000 lb. ram. This was the progenitor of the "#1 Series," which eventually included the 06, 306 and 506, and was further developed by Raymond with their 1 and 1-S hammers. The #0 hammer, with a ram weight of 7,500 lbs, was introduced in 1912. (Click here for a detailed study of the "Vulcan 00," its interaction with the Raymond Concrete Pile Company, and other details of this series of hammers.)

The hammers were an early success. As noted by Charles Evan Fowler in his book A Practical Treatise on Sub-Aqueous Foundations (1914):

Many modifications of this (Naysmith's) hammer have been manufactured, and one much used at present is the Warrington-Naysmith hammer, made by the Vulcan Iron Works. This hammer...is made in three sizes, the weight of the striking parts being 550 pounds (#4) for sheet-pile work, 3000 pounds (#2) for medium pile work and 4800 pounds (#1) for use on heavy work. This machine is provided with a positive valve gear, a short steam passage to avoid the waste of steam, a wide exhaust opening to prevent back pressure as the hammer drops, a piston-head forged on the rod, and channel bards on the side to allow the pile to be driven lower than the leads of the derrick. The hammer is attached to the hoist rope, but this is left slack when the hammer is resting on the head of the pile, steam is turned on and the hammer pounds automatically at the rate of sixty to seventy blows per minute until the pile is driven. The bottom casting which rests on the pile is a bonnet which encases the top and prevents brooming or splitting.

The hammer should have plenty of play in the leads, and the steam-pipe should extend halfway up the derrick to save the length of hose. This hammer has a record of as high as seventy-five to one hundred piles a day, and one account gives the record of 3000 lineal feet of piling per day at a cost of $50, the number of men being employed being sixteen and the coal consumption one ton. This hammer is shown in Fig. 40 (above left) in use driving piles for bridge work on the Fair Haven Bridge. (p. 62)

Vulcan developed a wide variety of accessories for these hammers. One of the most enduring was the McDermid Base, which enabled the #2 and #1 hammers to drive wood piling without the need for a cushion block. Although the Vulcan hammers were first developed in an age when wood piling was predominant, it was quickly adapted for use with the "new" concrete piles, H-piles and steel sheet piles as well. Vulcan also had many other related products in the early years of its pile hammer manufacture, including pipe followers (for driving piles below the ground surface,) pile points, pile bands, and a pile saw arbor for cutting wood piles off underwater. The company was also active with drop hammers and drop hammer rigs as well.

Note: we have an entire page dedicated to catalogue images of early Vulcan pile driving rigs (steam and drop hammers) and sheet piling accessories and sections.

Fowler and others referred to the new hammers as "Warrington-Naysmith," while Vulcan itself called it the "Warrington" or "Warrington-Vulcan" hammer. This and the other hammers Vulcan put out (Loomis, Skinner, etc.) bore the names of their American patentees. This didn't sit well with some people. In 1883 Don J. Wittemore make the following statement in the Transactions of the ASCE:

This machine is being manufactured and is called by the manufacturer after an individual who has added several perhaps very important minor details that have made it a little more practicable than it was thirty years ago. But wherever the members of the American Society of Civil Engineers witness the operations of this machine. I desire that they shall not drop the name of the Scotchman who was its inventor--James Nasmyth.

Although Naysmith was the original inventor, the improvements made by those mentioned above, and especially the Warringtons, made the hammer a durable and practical machine, some of which (as shown below) have lasted more than a century.

Below we show some earlier photos of Vulcan pile hammers and related products. Other Vulcan onshore products with pages of their own are as follows:

• Super-Vulcan Hammers, Open and Closed, the differential acting hammers.
• Vulcan #5 Hammer, Vulcan's first closed type hammer for sheeting
• California Series Hammers
• DGH Series Hammers
• Vulcan Pile Extractors

We also have photos of a Vulcan #2 which was featured on The History Channel.

At the seat of power: a Vulcan #0 driving 12" pipe piles for an addition to the House of Representatives in Washington, DC. The Capitol dome itself can be seen in the background. The contractor was McCloskey Enterprises of Philadelphia. (Photo by Adams Studio, Washington)

A skid rig with a Vulcan hammer driving steel Monotube piles for a blast furnace. Skid rigs were the most common way of handing pile driving equipment until the wide acceptance of modern crawler cranes for this purpose. Monotube piles are still in common use.

A #1 Warrington-Vulcan hammer driving long timber piles for a high approach for the D.M. & N.R.R. at Hibbing, MN. A locomotive rig is being used to handle the hammer.

Two rigs at once speed up work for Spencer, White and Prentis, one of the pioneering firms in deep foundations installation. In 1936 Lazarus White reported that "I read some papers last night where some of these pile driving formulas were derived, and the result was that my sleep was very much disturbed." This didn't stop Vulcan from putting Engineering News charts and tables in their literature for many years; an interactive version even appears on Vulcan Foundation Equipment's website.

A Vulcan Mariner hammer driving piles underwater. The Mariner series of hammers was related to the first differential acting hammers Vulcan put out, which were closed type (U.S. Patent 2,000,908.) Although the downward assist, simple valving (the same as the Warrington-Vulcan hammers) and the faster blow rate were popular with contractors, the invisible ram and the expense of manufacture forced Vulcan to produce open type differential hammers (the "C" series) after World War II. (An example of an open "C" hammer is shown at the right.) A closed hammer is still generally necessary for underwater use, as evidenced by those of IHC and Menck, but Vulcan actually commissioned a design for an open underwater hammer, the Sea Water Hammer, in 1994.

More information on the "Super-Vulcan" differential acting hammers can be found here.

A Vulcan differential acting hammer driving sheet piling using the staggered procedure, i.e., driving alternating sheeting and then coming back and driving those skipped. Note the use of stub leaders. Merritt-Chapman-Scott was the contractor.