Talk:Chinaman's chance

During the construction of the American railroads in the 1800's, whenever European workers felt a particular job was too dangerous and refused to perform the task, the Chinese laborers would be required to do it. An example is the frequent need of "scaling" the "cuts" through the mountains. "Scalers" are the workers who dislodge the loose rock left on the faces of a "cut" after a blasting operation. It is an extremely dangerous job, and scalers, even today, are frequently killed or seriously maimed in avalanches of dislodged rock as they clean out a cut of the loose material. The Chinese laborers were the RR operations scalers and would be lowered over the face of a cut in baskets and with bars and pick-axes dislodge the loose rock. They were also the workers required to clear "hangfires", the unexploded remnants of blasting powder left in the event a "shot" did not entirely detonate.