Signalman Jack: The Baboon Who Earned His Place on the South African Railways

Signalman Jack: The Baboon Who Earned His Place on the South African Railways

Between 1881 and 1890, a baboon named Jack officially worked for the South African Railways as a traffic signalman. He earned 20 cents a day and half a beer a week—and in nearly a decade of service, Jack never made a single mistake. Jack wasn’t just any baboon. He was a Chacma baboon who became the dedicated assistant of James “Jumper” Wide, a railroad signalman who had lost both legs in a tragic accident while working on the railways. Wide, kno…