Hello and welcome back to Most Amazing Top 10!
I am Rebecca Felgate and today we are delving back into the past as we talk about the top
10 jobs that no longer exist part 3…
10 - Head Shape Reader Officially called a Phrenologist – a head
shape reader would measure your skull and its contours and determine a person’s intelligence
based on the geometric observations.
This is where terms like well rounded, highbrow and low brow come from.
While this practice had a steady following in Europe, it was most popular in 19th Century
America.
Some people found the readings reassuring and empowering, others begun to see it as
a bit racist.
In the end, the process stopped when it was discovered that head shape has no correlation
to intelligence or any other personality trait.
9 - Log Driver Back in the day before large lorry’s and
trucks existed to transport timbre, logs were floated down rivers to water powered saw mills,
which cut logs into lumber.
I imagine fish are among the many species that are happy this practice no longer exists.
Among many issues, log jams were pretty regular.
This next job does still exist in some countries but is dying quickly, coming in to number
8, we have Coal Miners.
The UK famously closed the majority of its coal mines in the 1980s, with the last deep
coal mine in the UK closed in December 2015.
These days energy is harboured in cleaner ways, and in 2017, Britain went a full day
without using coal power to generate electricity for the first time since the industrial revolution.
In the US, mining still exists but the entire coal mining industry employs less people than
American Food chain, Arby’s, with mining jobs disappearing each day.
In 50 years, there will probably be no human miners.
A job that is now long gone, at number 7 we have Pre-radar Listeners.
I can’t help but have a little laugh when I see a picture of a Pre-Radar listener.
They look like they’re involved in a strange art instillation.
But no, these guys are actually using extremeo earphones to listen out for enemy aircraft.
The listeners pre-dated radar, which revolutionized defence in the 1940s.
Before that, in world war one and early world war two, these listeners were relied on heavily
to stay one step ahead of the enemy.
What a job!
Can you imagine the fear when you do actually hear something.
6 - Elevator Operator…or as we would say in England, the lift attendant.
Have you seen the film Titanic?
If so, you will have seen some classic lift attendant action.
For these people, it was their job to move the elevator up and down and be kinda fancy
while they did it.
They would wear porter style uniforms and ask things like “What Floor, mam”.
Ahh the ages of more glamour!
In those days, too, the elevators looked way classier….
Often with ornate cages.
Another job of times gone by, at number 5 we have - Film Projectionists
Okay so some old cinemas do still use film reels, but these are rare and those working
as projectionists are usually volunteers who just LOVE vintage cinema.
These days cinema has largely gone digital, meaning there is no need for a manual, or
often even human labour.
I will always think there is something more romantic about reel to reel cinema… but
maybe I am old fashioned that way!
4 - Switchboard Operator I can’t imagine a time where, when calling
someone, I didn’t get straight to the person I wanted to speak to, however in my grandparents
time, this was very much the reality.
Switchboard operators connected long distance calls, or, on a smaller scale, within big
households or businesses.
Back in the day, phone calls were not digitally managed, which meant that switchboard operators
had to connect calls using a number of different wires.
Sounds too tangly for me!
A yeee olde job for the ladies in at number 3, we have the Wet Nurse.
Before the 20th Century, it was very common, especially for upper class house holds, to
employ women to breastfeed their children.
Wet nurses were women who were not the baby’s mother who were paid to feed often several
babies at a time.
This freed the mother up, who no longer had the obligation of having to breast feed her
baby herself.
This practice has been all but eradicated since the invention of baby formula.
Coming into number two, we have Powdermonkeys.
Do you want to take a wild guess as to what on earth these were….i’ll give you three
seconds to guess………… for those of you who guessed young boy in the navy who
had to carry gun powder to the guns on board…you get a gold star….for the rest of you…better
luck next time!
These young boys were sometimes illegitimate children, kidnapped and sent off to war without
pay.
Aside from the condescending nicknames, these kids were in grave danger….they had to load
explosive powder into HUGE guns while the ship was being fired at.
Not ideal.
The least ideal job of them all at number one……let’s spare a few thoughts for
all the people in history with this …. Rather stinky job.
In at number one, we have the Groom of the Stool.
Lovely.
The Groom of the Stool was a role apparently created by king henry the 8th and the poor
sole that had to fulfil it was in charge of monitoring his bowl movements….and wiping
his butt.
Ergh…giant king poo.
The groom of the stool used to carry around a portable toilet as well as towl and a wash
bowl.
The groom of the stools day was focused around when the king needed to poop.
As the job was rather…err…intimate….
It was usually rewarded handsomely with good pay and extra perks, like a lodgings in the
kings palace.
Mad King George the third had nine grooms of the stool, including one who went on to
be Prime Minister.
The job stopped happening around time good Sanitary and private toilets were invented
and clothing became less elaborate.
Well!
There we have it!
That was the top ten jobs that no longer exists part three!
Which of these would you most like to do as your job today, and which would you like to
do the least?
Let me know in the comments section below.
For now, I am Rebecca Felgate….thanks for tuning in to Most Amazing Top 10……out