Jobs That No Longer Exist!

 I was listening to a word show the other day when they discussed how some technology has been named after the job it replaced.  For instance, a computer is a machine that does calculations and other things but the original computers were people who could carry out calculations.  In another case, we have dish washers which are machines to clean dishes so people didn't have to do it any more but we have people who load the trays to take the dishes through the machines.

This tidbit lead me to wonder what jobs have disappeared in the last hundred years with the advance of technology.  Some I'm fully aware of and many I'd never head about.

One of the obvious ones is the switchboard operator.  I'm not talking about the ones who connect you at a hospital or at the office but the ones who ran the telephone exchanges long ago before the automatic switchers.  These women would help connect people to others via an actual plug because telephones did not have dials on them so there was no way to input the phone number other than tell it to a person.  They would help find messed up trunk lines, connect people to other people, make long distance calls, and many could tell you where someone one was if they were not home.  This job was phased out as the number of people increased to the point that operators were overwhelmed and telephone companies had to install automatic switchers that could be used by anyone with a dial phone.

Bowling Alley Pinsetters is another job that has disappeared due to technology.  Years ago before someone created a machine, all pins had to be reset by hand. This low paying, part time job often hired teen age boys to work in the evenings.  They would reset the pins at the end of each person's turn and at the end of the game.  In 1936, when the first mechanical pinsetter was made, boys lost their jobs because bowling alleys could use the machine to reset the pins.

Elevator operators are also gone for the most part.  For years, most elevators had a human operator who was dressed in a uniform with white gloves.  They would find out which floors people wanted to stop, use a large lever to move the elevator, and often relied on experience to stop the elevator at the correct floor.  Then sometime in the late 1950's or early 1960's elevators that someone figured out how to automate elevators thus eliminating the need for operators.

Ice cutters no longer exist because we have refrigerators that keep themselves cold.  Before this happened, people had to rely on ice being hauled in and put in a cabinet underneath the area with the food.  As the ice melted it kept the food cool.  There were people who made a living cutting ice from frozen water bodies, storing it, and delivering it year round to people on a regular basis.  This job disappeared in the 1930's when the modern refrigerator came into use.

Then there is the rat catcher who was used in Europe for many centuries since the Black Plague.  These people would hunt down rats throughout Europe to keep them from spreading disease and to restrict their populations.  Rat catchers could be bitten, exposed to disease, or hurt as they carried out their job.  This job went away as society began using professional pest control companies.

When street lights started being used, they had to rely on Lamplighters to make sure they were lit at the beginning of the evening and turned off in the morning as the sun came up.  This was before light bulbs were invented, when cities used lights powered by gas or oil.  These people lit, extinguished the lights, maintained the lights, and took care of every facet associated with them.  In Lowell, MA, lamplighters made about $2.00 per day taking care of 70 to 80 lamps every night.  In England, the job was considered to be so prestigious, it passed down from father to son.  Once the electricity and light bulbs replaced the gas or oil, lamplighters were no longer needed.

Of course there is the restrictionist, also known as a body snatcher, whose job required them to dig up the recently buried body to sell to the medical schools, doctors, and scientists.  This happened because these people were unable to obtain enough cadavers via legal means, so they had to rely on body snatchers to keep them supplied.  Body snatchers differed from grave robbers because they were only interested in the bodies while grave robbers wanted everything else like jewelry, etc.  A body snatcher could make 25 pounds for supplying one body which was about two months salary at another job.

In factories, you might find a lector who was paid for by the workers to read to them to keep them entertained.  Lectors read a variety of materials from union recruiting pamphlets, to newspapers, to books. This job helped both entertain and educated workers such as those in Cuba or Florida who worked in cigar rolling.

My favorite is the knocker upper job.  Before you let your mind head off into the American meaning, there were once people who used knocker uppers to waken them up because alarm clocks did not yet exist.  The name comes about because these people were hired to knock on a window to wake you up in the morning.  Originally, the knocker uppers would pound on the front door or ring the bells but they often woke other people in the building up, so they eventually began using long sticks or pea shooters to knock on the window.  My father talks about visiting New Zealand in the 1970's and having the clerk ask him at what time he wanted to be "Knocked Up?".  Now I understand where the term came from.

I hope you enjoyed this.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear, have a great day.