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| Not all "Korean power shovels" used just three or five men ― some used nine. Circa 1900-1910s. Robert Neff Collection |
By Robert Neff
In the modern age of "ppali-ppali" (a Korean expression that means to do everything quickly) one still occasionally sees what some Westerners over a century ago called "the Korean power shovel."
American missionary George Heber Jones (1867-1919) described the "Korean power shovel" as an "interesting invention [that] occupies a front rank among the labor-saving machines of Korea, for it saves from three to five men a vast deal of work." He was obviously being somewhat sarcastic as he waxed on almost poetically:
"When in operation, the captain [the man holding the shovel's handle] inserts the iron shod point of the shovel as deep into the earth sometimes as three inches, and then the crew of two or four men give a lusty pull and a shout and away will go a tablespoonful of dirt fully six feet, if not more into the distance. This operation is repeated three or four times and then the weary crew take a recess and refresh themselves with a pipe. It is a beautiful sight to watch a crew working these power shovels, everything is executed with such clockwise regularity, especially the recess. Then the crew sometimes sing in a minor strain, for the Korean day laborer can always be depended on, when putting in time, to do it in as pleasant a manner as possible."
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| A three-man shovel circa 1900s-1910s Robert Neff Collection |
Horace N. Allen (1858-1932), a cranky American missionary-turned-diplomat, echoed his sentiment:
"The Koreans are very ingenious in their use of the shovel… For turning over soil, ditching or any work requiring the raising of earth, they use a broad shovel with a long handle, having a rope attached to either ear of the blade. One man will guide the handle while one or two men will pull on each rope, thus employing from three to five men for each shovel."
Allen noted that when the men were working for themselves they certainly did "great execution with it, but when working for wages they are apt to make of it a very labour-saving contrivance."
It seems that Allen was writing from the same point of view as James Scarth Gale (1863-1937), who later wrote:
"We had a small patch of garden we wanted turned over, so we hired a coolie and put in his hand a beautiful new spade from America. He attached two straw ropes to it, hired four other coolies, at our expense of course, and did the job in triumph."
Being completely inexperienced in regard to using a "Korean power shovel," I wonder if the two missionaries' denigration of this tool was warranted.
Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books, including Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.
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