From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A crowbar

A crowbar, also called a pry bar or prybar, or more informally known as a jimmy, jimmy bar^{[citation needed]} or jemmy (British Isles), is a tool consisting of a metal bar with a single curved end and flattened points, often with a small fissure on the curved end for removing nails. In the British Isles "crowbar" may be used loosely for this tool, but is more commonly used to mean a larger straight tool (see spud bar); the term "jemmy" most often refers to the tool when used for burglary.

It is used as a lever to either force apart two objects or to remove nails. Crowbars are commonly used to open nailed wooden boxes. Another common use for larger crowbars is general demolition: for removing nails, prying apart boards, and generally smashing things. It has also been used as a weapon in hold-ups.

Crowbars can be used as any of the three lever classes but are generally used as a 1st or 2nd class lever.

Normally made of medium carbon steel, they can be made from titanium also, which has the advantage of being lighter, nonmagnetic, and spark-resistant.

The least expensive, most common crowbars are forged from hexagonal or sometimes cylindrical stock. More advanced, expensive designs often are forged with an I shaped cross sectional shaft similar to an I-beam. This shape makes them more resistant to bending.

• There is a popular story that the term crowbar derives from Jim Crow and they were used by blacks to perform menial tasks, and the word thus has racist origins. This is a false etymology; the term crowbar traces to at least 1400; and is not in any sense racist. As they resembled the feet or beaks of a crow, they were first called crow bars; later the two joined into one word.^[1] They also were called crows; William Shakespeare used the term crow in many places^[2], including his written-in-the-1590s play Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, scene ii:

Get me an iron crow and bring it straight.

Unto my cell. ... ^[clarify]

In some computer games a crowbar is the basic mêlée weapon wielded by the player character; this practice appears to have been started in 1998's Half-Life.

Examples include:

• Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
• Deus Ex
• Condemned: Criminal Origins
• Half-Life
• Half-Life 2
• Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
• Manhunt
• Siren
• Urban Dead

Many pieces of zombie-related fiction, such as Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide, make special note of the crowbar as perhaps the best all-around mêlée weapon—not only does it make a useful tool, but it is light enough to be carried and wielded quickly and is also heavy and durable enough to deal an effective blow, with a pointed end capable of penetrating a skull. As zombies traditionally cease function when the brain is destroyed, this is extremely important in combat with them.

In the videogames:

• Tomb Raider III
• Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
• Tomb Raider Chronicles
• Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness

The crowbar is used to break padlocks

1. ^ The etymology of crowbar is not in any sense racist
2. ^ Shakespeare reference