tamping iron of Phineas Gage
E594614
The tamping iron of Phineas Gage is the long iron rod that famously passed through Gage’s skull in an 1848 railroad accident, becoming a landmark artifact in the study of brain function and personality.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| tamping iron of Phineas Gage canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T6454624 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: tamping iron of Phineas Gage Context triple: [Phineas Gage, hasPart, tamping iron of Phineas Gage]
-
A.
Davy lamp
The Davy lamp is a safety lamp for miners that uses a wire-gauze shield to prevent the ignition of flammable gases in coal mines.
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B.
The Iron
The Iron is the English title of Surah Al-Hadid, the 57th chapter of the Qur’an, which emphasizes faith, charity, and the transient nature of worldly life.
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C.
The Iron
The Iron is the nickname of Scunthorpe United F.C., an English professional football club traditionally associated with the town’s steel industry.
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D.
Babbitt
Babbitt is a surname most notably associated with American literary critic and academic Irving Babbitt.
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E.
Babbitt
Babbitt is a 1934 American film adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s novel, featuring Guy Kibbee in the title role as a middle-class businessman confronting the emptiness of his conformist life.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: tamping iron of Phineas Gage Target entity description: The tamping iron of Phineas Gage is the long iron rod that famously passed through Gage’s skull in an 1848 railroad accident, becoming a landmark artifact in the study of brain function and personality.
-
A.
Davy lamp
The Davy lamp is a safety lamp for miners that uses a wire-gauze shield to prevent the ignition of flammable gases in coal mines.
-
B.
The Iron
The Iron is the nickname of Scunthorpe United F.C., an English professional football club traditionally associated with the town’s steel industry.
-
C.
The Iron
The Iron is the English title of Surah Al-Hadid, the 57th chapter of the Qur’an, which emphasizes faith, charity, and the transient nature of worldly life.
-
D.
Babbitt
Babbitt is a surname most notably associated with American literary critic and academic Irving Babbitt.
-
E.
Babbitt
Babbitt is a 1934 American film adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s novel, featuring Guy Kibbee in the title role as a middle-class businessman confronting the emptiness of his conformist life.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
historical artifact
ⓘ
medical museum object ⓘ tamping iron ⓘ |
| associatedWithEvent |
1848 Phineas Gage railroad accident
ⓘ
linked to:
Phineas Gage
|
| associatedWithField |
history of medicine
ⓘ
neuropsychology ⓘ neuroscience ⓘ psychology ⓘ |
| associatedWithOccupation | railroad construction foreman ⓘ |
| associatedWithPerson | John Martyn Harlow ⓘ |
| culturalSignificance | iconic object in popular neuroscience ⓘ |
| currentLocation | Warren Anatomical Museum ⓘ |
| damagedBrainRegion | frontal lobes of Phineas Gage ⓘ |
| dateOfEvent | 1848 ⓘ |
| diameter |
about 1.25 inches
ⓘ
about 3.2 centimeters ⓘ |
| donatedTo | Harvard Medical School ⓘ |
| enteredAt | left cheek of Phineas Gage ⓘ |
| exitedAt | top of skull of Phineas Gage ⓘ |
| feature | tapered end ⓘ |
| featuredIn |
medical textbooks
ⓘ
museum exhibits ⓘ neuroscience lectures ⓘ |
| inscription | This is the bar that was shot through the head of Mr. Phinehas P. Gage ⓘ |
| inscriptionLanguage | English ⓘ |
| laterOwner | Phineas Gage’s family ⓘ |
| length |
about 1.1 meters
ⓘ
about 3 feet 7 inches ⓘ |
| locatedIn | Harvard Medical School ⓘ |
| locatedInCity | Boston ⓘ |
| locatedInCountry |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| locatedInState | Massachusetts ⓘ |
| material | iron ⓘ |
| museumIdentifier | Warren Anatomical Museum catalog object ⓘ |
| owner | Phineas Gage ⓘ |
| passedThrough | skull of Phineas Gage ⓘ |
| preservationStatus | well preserved ⓘ |
| publicAccess | on display to visitors at Warren Anatomical Museum ⓘ |
| relatedArtifact | skull of Phineas Gage ⓘ |
| roleInScience | landmark case in study of brain and personality ⓘ |
| shape | cylindrical rod ⓘ |
| symbolizes | relationship between brain injury and personality change ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 19th century ⓘ |
| usedBy | Phineas Gage ⓘ |
| usedFor | tamping blasting powder in rock ⓘ |
| weight |
about 13.25 pounds
ⓘ
about 6 kilograms ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: tamping iron of Phineas Gage Description of subject: The tamping iron of Phineas Gage is the long iron rod that famously passed through Gage’s skull in an 1848 railroad accident, becoming a landmark artifact in the study of brain function and personality.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.