Buzz
While many of us are worried about robots and AI taking our jobs, the truth is, we often overlook the roles that have already been overtaken by previous technological innovations and modern robots.
Not long ago, many of these jobs were essential and lucrative. They vanished when more efficient technologies were created to handle their tasks. In some rare cases, technological progress revealed that the job itself was obsolete.
10. Gong Farmer
A few centuries ago, what we now call a bathroom (or toilet in Britain) was known as a privy. It consisted of a raised wooden seat with a hole in the center, as opposed to modern flush toilets. People used this setup to relieve themselves, with their waste falling into a pit below.
As the cesspit gradually filled up, it required regular emptying. This task fell to the gong farmer.
The term 'gong' was slang for 'going,' and 'farmer' referred to the act of 'harvesting' the waste. Gong farmers had to enter the cramped cesspits, where the waste could reach waist-high. Occasionally, they enlisted young boys to help, who would scoop the waste into carts for transport to dumps, where it was repurposed into fertilizer.
The gong farmers were infamous for their foul odor, which was hardly surprising, as regular bathing was rare in the Middle Ages. Their stench was so unbearable that they were often restricted to their homes, with work limited to nighttime hours.
The job was also perilous. The toxic gases in the waste could kill the gong farmers inside the cesspit. Despite the risks and humiliation, the lucrative pay made it worthwhile. The occupation eventually vanished with the introduction of sewage pipes and treatment plants in the 19th century, although gong farmers still exist in some regions today.
9. Knocker Upper
Long before alarm clocks became commonplace, people relied on knocker uppers to rouse them from sleep. Remarkably, this job continued until the 1970s.
Initially, knocker uppers would knock on or ring the doors of their paying clients. But they quickly realized this approach had its drawbacks—neighbors often complained about the noise disrupting their sleep, and they unintentionally woke non-paying customers. To solve this, knocker uppers started tapping on clients' windows with long poles.
The tap was loud enough to wake the client but gentle enough not to disturb others. The knocker uppers didn't linger to confirm their clients were awake, typically leaving after three or four taps. As electricity and alarm clocks became more widespread, the profession began to fade away.
Most knocker uppers went out of business during the 1940s and 1950s, and by the 1970s, the profession had vanished entirely.
8. Ice Cutter
Between 1800 and 1920, ice cutters harvested ice from frozen ponds to help preserve food, using ice axes and later handheld ice saws. The industry flourished, so much so that large ice saws, which required horses to tow, were employed.
Most of the ice came from natural freshwater sources in the northwest United States, harvested between January and February. The work was grueling, with ice cutters working seven days a week in 10-hour shifts to gather enough ice before the temperatures rose in March. The risk of falling into the frozen water was ever-present.
The horses were not exempt from the risks of the job. They were just as likely to fall into the icy ponds. Their droppings also tainted the ice. Many ice-cutting operations hired a 'shine boy' to clean up after the horses. The shine boy carried a waterproof wooden sleigh to transport the waste.
The cut ice was stored in structures known as icehouses, where it was preserved for export to other parts of the US and Europe. These warehouses featured double walls, were elevated off the ground, and were packed with materials like sand, straw, sawdust, hay, charcoal, and bark to prevent the ice from melting. Additionally, they were strategically placed away from trees to avoid dampness that could cause the ice to melt.
However, the ice industry was unpredictable, as ice could melt or form incorrectly. It was rare for ice cutters to experience two successful harvests in a row. The real winners were the farmers who owned the ponds, sometimes earning more from selling ice than from their crops. The industry faded away with the invention of the electric refrigerator.
7. Match Maker
Centuries ago, match-making companies employed women exclusively to make matches. These women, known as 'matchstick girls,' worked in dangerous and grueling conditions. This was especially true for companies like Bryant and May, which paid poor wages, overworked staff, enforced strict rules, and used hazardous white phosphorous in match production.
At Bryant and May, the matchstick girls worked 14-hour days. They were frequently penalized for minor mistakes, such as dropping a match, chatting with colleagues, or arriving late. But the most significant danger they faced was from the white phosphorous they handled.
White phosphorous is toxic, and it caused a condition known as 'phosphorous necrosis of the jaw,' which the workers referred to as 'phossy jaw.' This disease rotted the jawbone and could sometimes spread to the brain, leading to a slow and painful death. Treatment involved removing the damaged jaw, but even this could prove fatal.
6. Rectal Teaching Assistant
While we were preoccupied with discussions about whether robots and artificial intelligence would eventually take over our jobs, robots silently took away the role of the rectal teaching assistant.
Medical professionals often diagnose prostate cancer by inserting their fingers into the anus to examine the prostate gland. In the past, they trained with a living human known as a rectal teaching assistant. There was only one man in the entire UK authorized to hold this position.
To address the shortage of rectal teaching assistants, scientists at Imperial College London created a robotic rectum that simulated a real human one. Unfortunately, this advancement meant that the sole licensed rectal teaching assistant in the UK lost his job.
The creators claim the robot is superior to a human. Equipped with cameras inside, the robot allows medical staff to view the internals of the robot's rectum on a computer screen, something they couldn't do with a human.
5. Human Computers
The first human computers emerged in 1939 when the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California hired Barbara Canright to perform computations. Her tasks included everything from calculating the force needed for an airplane to lift off to the amount of rocket propellant required to send a rocket into space.
These intricate calculations were carried out with pencils and paper. A single calculation could take a whole day, and some tasks would take a week to complete. One calculation could fill up to eight notebooks. Canright was soon joined by Melba Nea, Virginia Prettyman, and Macie Roberts after the United States entered World War II.
After the war, the human computers focused their efforts on the space race. They were responsible for the calculations that helped launch the US's first satellite, sent the Voyager probes into space, landed the first unmanned rover on Mars, and enabled Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 crew to reach the Moon.
The human computers maintained their dominance even when NASA began testing mechanical computers in the 1950s. Many believed humans were more dependable than machines, but eventually, humans lost their jobs to computers.
4. Pin Boy
Decades ago, bowling alleys hired young boys, known as pinsetters, pin spotters, or pin boys, to manually set up fallen pins and return bowling balls to players. Although the pay was low and the work was often part-time, it was demanding, with the boys working well into the night, often past midnight.
This began to change in 1936 when Gottfried Schmidt invented the mechanical pinsetter. The machine was semiautomatic but still needed human assistance. Some bowling alleys resisted the new technology and continued to employ pin boys. However, over time, both the pin boys and the semi-automatic pinsetters were replaced by fully automatic pinsetters.
3. Leech Collector
The profession of leech collector briefly emerged in the 1800s. During this time, bloodletting was practiced as a supposed remedy for various illnesses, with physicians using leeches to drain blood from their patients.
In response to the growing demand for leeches, leech collectors came into existence. Typically poor women, they gathered leeches from ponds and other abundant sources. The collectors used their legs (or occasionally those of old horses) to attract the leeches, which would latch on for feeding.
The women would let the leeches feed for about 20 minutes before removing them, as a fully engorged leech was easier to detach than a hungry one. This process often caused bleeding that would last for hours, leading to significant blood loss. Interestingly, the blood loss attracted more leeches, benefiting the collectors' business.
The profession began to fade when leeches became harder to find. At the same time, doctors started to question the effectiveness of bloodletting. Over time, medical advancements confirmed that bloodletting was not only ineffective but also harmful. As a result, bloodletting and the profession of leech collectors faded into history, with the leeches themselves ultimately surviving the extinction threat.
2. Log Driver
Before trains and trucks became commonplace, timber felled deep in forests was floated down rivers, drifting downstream. However, these logs often became trapped in long, sprawling logjams that could involve tens of thousands of logs and sometimes required dynamite to break apart. To clear these blockages and guide the logs, a profession known as log driving was born.
The job was both perilous and grueling. Log drivers navigated the rivers in special boats, sometimes even jumping from log to log as the timber floated downstream. Unfortunately, some of them met a tragic fate by drowning or getting crushed between the logs during their efforts to break up the logjams or escort the logs.
1. Lamplighter
The first public streetlights made their debut in the 18th century. These lamps were fueled by fish oil and needed a lamplighter to light them during the night and extinguish them at dawn. As the technology advanced, the fish oil lamp was improved and eventually replaced by the gas lamp, which still required a lamplighter to operate.
Lamplighters were equipped with long poles to ignite the lamps at night and snuff out the flames at daybreak. In addition to this, they also took on the duties of cleaning, maintaining, and repairing the lamps to ensure their continued function.
The lamplighter role began to fade in the 1870s with the advent of electric streetlamps. In the US, electric lamps quickly phased out the gas-powered ones. However, the UK clung to gas lamps for several more decades due to resistance against electric lighting. Eventually, the UK made the switch to electric lamps as well.
Electric lamps faced criticism for being too bright, harsh, and unattractive for nighttime illumination. Some also raised concerns about the high cost of electricity. To counteract this, the British Commercial Gas Association pushed for gas lamps as the superior option, even going so far as to sabotage the widespread adoption of electric lighting.
Electric lamps became the norm in the 1930s. However, approximately 1,500 gas lamps remain in London today, preserved for their historical significance.
