On the thirteenth of September, 1848, a explosive accident launched an inch-thick steel tamping rod through the head of Phineas P. Gage, foreman of blasting operations for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad. The shaft entering under the left cheekbone and exiting through the top of Gage’s skull. Gage survived, living for twelve more years, even though his personality was change to such an extent that his friends described him as “no longer Gage.”