Everyone's had the odd job they were forced to take when times were tough, and sometimes
you can find yourself responding to some pretty odd job postings.
Millions of people every day show up at laboratories and medical facilities around the world to
be guinea pigs for dangerous drug trials or to test new gadgets and devices.
While these jobs can be risky, and probably more than a little weird, what are some of
the worst jobs in the world- that have ever existed?!
vb One of the worst jobs in history certainly
had to be that of a Punkawallah- a royal fan bearer in ancient India.
With temperatures reaching a whopping 122 degrees (50 C) and humidity as high as 80-100%,
it's a wonder that people survived before the invention of air conditioning!
But survive they did, and while the common man was forced to endure the heat best they
could, Indian rulers, or Maharajas, enlisted fan bearers to constantly fan them all day
long.
Being so close to the Maharaja, deaf servants or slaves were preferred for the role, as
they wouldn't be able to overhear any secret conversations.
Eventually ceiling fans were invented- but without electricity, guess who had the job
of pedaling the complex system of pulleys all day long to keep the fans rotating?
All that labor works up a lot of sweat, so it's a good thing getting clean is just one
shower and a soap bar away.
But for centuries the process of making soap was dirty, disgusting, and more than a bit
dangerous.
Up until the industrial revolution most soaps were made by combining animal fats, various
oils, and harsh chemicals such as lye.
First animal fat was slowly melted and then strained to remove any meaty bits, then mixed
with water and brought to a boil.
The mixture was left to harden overnight, and the next day lye would be slowly stirred
into cold water.
Because of its volatility, adding too much lye to water, or the reverse- adding water
directly to lye- could create an explosion!
Even if the mixture didn't explode though, it would heat rapidly due to lye's exothermic
reaction with water, and without any protective equipment, any lye that got on the worker's
skin would leave horrible burns.
The fat mixture would then be added to the lye/water mixture and blended for hours.
Soap may leave you feeling fresh and clean, but it was definitely a smelly and dangerous
affair to make for thousands of years!
Melted animal fat can be kind of gross, but nothing tops the gross level of the next worst
job in history.
Medieval Europe is remembered mostly for epic stories about brave knights, but one thing
it's not remembered for is its indoor plumbing- which did not exist in most Medieval castles
and villages.
But people still had to use the bathroom, and all that waste definitely had to go somewhere.
Enter the Gong Farmer, a polite term created for the peasants who's job it was to clean
latrines, outhouses, and royal privies.
Forced to empty cesspools full of human waste with nothing more than buckets, gong farmers
were responsible for digging, emptying, and then disposing of the waste of entire villages.
While sometimes it could be used as fertilizer, often the gong farmer had to burn all of that
waste in giant bonfires, creating thick, choking, and very smelly smoke.
Exposed to all manner of diseases and parasites, gong farmers were the absolute lowest of the
lowest social classes and often died of terrible infections.
Even though our own jobs can often be stressful or difficult, let's at least be grateful that
most jobs today aren't as disgusting or dangerous as those in the past, and that when works
get to be too much, we can always take a quick vacation for some much needed R&R.
But for Fuzzy and Nutz, their adventure exploring the past has just started, so make sure you
tune in next time to see where they're off to next!