# Defunct professions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 29, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198 "2016-09-29T13:03:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/21 "2016-09-29T19:28:41Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > Do you suppose railroads still hire ‘bulls’ or ‘bull-men’ anymore? They were the brutal guards railroad companies hired to seek out and rough up hobos who tried to hop freight trains in the early 20th century. I can confirm that the railroads still have security officers. My friend and I were stopped by one a few years back while rabbit hunting along some railroad tracks. He introduced himself as being from the “Canadian National Railroad Police”, which prompted my hunting partner to bark “Yeah, well this is America, pal!”, not comprehending that the officer was affiliated with [Canadian National](https://www.cn.ca/). Luckily, despite my friends belligerence, he took it easy on us. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/22 "2016-09-29T19:57:26Z")
OTOH I read where some jobs were making a comeback like butchers, blacksmiths, and persons who can handmake certain items. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/23 "2016-09-29T20:02:10Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Neither are grooms, nor ever will be as long as riding stables, private stables, and racecourses exist. [Here are some current job listings for grooms, blacksmiths, and other horse-related occupations.](https://www.yardandgroom.com)… Compared to their numbers before the Model T, there are very few. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/24 "2016-09-29T21:44:39Z")
Steel puddler. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/25 "2016-09-29T21:45:12Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > OK, but witchfinders and plague doctors are definitely on the decline. Witchfinders made something of a comeback in the 1980s, resulting in much trouble for heavy metal bands and daycare providers. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/26 "2016-09-29T21:57:06Z")
Don’t forget the old favourite, the “sagger maker’s bottom knocker”. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/27 "2016-09-29T23:43:00Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Compared to their numbers before the Model T, there are very few. Not all that “very”, AFAICT. In the US alone nowadays there are estimated to be [over 9 million domesticated horses](http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/pdfs/hsp/soaiv_07_ch10.pdf), which is nearly half as big as the US equine population at the start of the 20th century, and a sizable subset of domesticated horses still require hired grooms to take care of them. “Less common” != “obsolete”; the occupation “groom” is not at all superseded or redundant in the way that, say, coachmen and coal-engine stokers and manuscript scribes have become. Grooms are more like piano tuners: less numerous than they used to be but still quite crucial to the wellbeing of a diminished but significant population. > [@Jackmannii](#): > > On a related note, it’s getting hard to find openings for superintendents of tuberculosis sanitariums and leper colonies. Unfortunately, new strains of [multidrug-resistant TB](http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)62675-6/fulltext) may mean that the former occupation will be making at least a partial comeback: > [@](#): > > […] the growing pool of treatment failures needs to be addressed with a coordinated strategy that involves supported home care interlinked with urgent building of long-term community stay and palliative care facilities. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/28 "2016-09-29T23:45:40Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Witchfinders made something of a comeback in the 1980s, resulting in much trouble for heavy metal bands and daycare providers. Yeah, but they were mostly amateurs in the sense of doing it for the love of the sport. Although there was [one fairly accomplished one](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kee_MacFarlane), who took it to a whole new level. Cotton Mather would have been proud. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/29 "2016-09-29T23:51:11Z")
Are there any cordwainers still around? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/30 "2016-09-30T00:05:00Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Are there any cordwainers still around? Yes, in the sense of “artisans who manufacture custom-made shoes from new leather”, as opposed to cobblers, who repair or re-make existing shoes. But they’re very much a niche luxury market these days: e.g., the [Cordwainer Shop](http://www.cordwainershop.com/about.html) in New Hampshire. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/31 "2016-09-30T06:33:13Z")
There was a time when every medium-sized town had a TV repair shop. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/32 "2016-09-30T06:53:14Z")
Knocker Up is my favourite defunct occupation. Unfortunately it is not what it sounds like. > **[Knocker-up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knocker-up)** > > A knocker-up was > a member of a profession in the Netherlands, Britain, Ireland, and some other countries that started during, and lasted well into, the Industrial Revolution, when alarm clocks were neither cheap nor reliable. A knocker-up's job was to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time. By the 1940s and 1950s, this profession had died out, although it still continued in some pockets of industrial England until the early 1970s. > The knocker-up used a baton or short, heavy s... ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/33 "2016-09-30T09:14:07Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Don’t forget the old favourite, the “sagger maker’s bottom knocker”. In the same industry (pottery) there were a lot of specialist jobs, like a glost putter up\*. I worked in the area for a while, and I remember my father on a visit being much taken with adverts in the local paper for (this was in the days before sex discrimination laws) “female handlers”. \*_[Pottery Jobs Index](http://www.thepotteries.org/jobs/)_ ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/34 "2016-09-30T15:52:11Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > There was a time when every medium-sized town had a TV repair shop. There’s one right near my residence: “Bob’s TV Repair”. I went inside wondering what I would find. A very dusty & messy shop full of 1990s home stereo gear, a bunch of old posters and LPs for sale, and a few modern DVDs and PC games. Plus one or two extra dusty CRT TVs. With no evidence of any repair shop; no bench, no tools, etc. This trove would look right at home spread on a quilt behind a ratty pickup at a Sunday swap meet in a rural county seat someplace. Looks like the proprietor is simply wasting away his golden years sitting there waiting to die. Maybe he does a good business in bath salts on the side. It kinda had that vibe although I saw no overt evidence. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/35 "2016-09-30T15:56:49Z")
For me the defunct profession is “Flight Engineer”. When I started in the industry in the late '80s there were probably 10,000 flight engineers working in the US. Now it’s closer to a couple hundred. I bet it’ll be zero in another 5-ish years. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/36 "2016-09-30T16:15:03Z")
Remember the episode of _I Love Lucy_ where Lucy and Ethel go to work in the chocolate factory? Of course you do, everybody does! Well, one of the jobs that the guy from the employment agency offers them before he sends them to the chocolate factory is “comptometer operator.” A [comptometer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptometer) was a mechanical calculator, sort of an early adding machine. Between computers and electronic calculators, I’m betting there aren’t any comptometer operators around anymore. Another job he offers them is “PBX operator.” I don’t know, are there still PBX systems anywhere? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/37 "2016-09-30T16:26:05Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > There are still a few of these around, for niche/artisanal markets or at historic sites, but as professions they’re largely obsolete: > > blacksmith > groom (cared for horses) > cooper (barrelmaker) > teamster (in the original sense - one who drove teams of horses) > muleskinner (ditto, but for mules) My favorite is switchboard operator. As someone mentioned above, there are still coopers who make barrels the old way, mainly for whisky making. I saw it on (IIRC) Discovery or History Channel when they were talking about making whisky and showed some guys actually making the barrels and how they char them. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/38 "2016-09-30T16:32:38Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Another job he offers them is “PBX operator.” I don’t know, are there still PBX systems anywhere? Apparently there are, because a quick google search finds a bunch of jobs being offered on monster and other job sites. Also, the average pay for a PBX operator in 2016 is apparently about $11 an hour. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/39 "2016-09-30T16:37:44Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > … > Another job he offers them is “PBX operator.” I don’t know, are there still PBX systems anywhere? What do you suppose is the function of every receptionist at every hotel and large corporate office in the land? That person has a fancy phone and distributes incoming calls on a shared main number to the appropriate extensions. Functionally speaking that’s a PBX even if it doesn’t have those pre-1960s plugs and wires. Even systems with auto-attendants (“press 1 for accounting, 2 for reservations, 3 for the dining room, …”) still have a person backstopping the whole thing (" …, or press 0 or stay on the line to speak to an operator."). That person is, by definition, a PBX operator. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/40 "2016-09-30T16:51:54Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > What do you suppose is the function of every receptionist at every hotel and large corporate office in the land? That person has a fancy phone and distributes incoming calls on a shared main number to the appropriate extensions. Functionally speaking that’s a PBX even if it doesn’t have those pre-1960s plugs and wires. When I worked for Bell Labs in Denver in the early 80s, it was usually called the “PBX Lab”, although I believe the official designation was “Business Communications”. The computer based system we were developing at that time was usually referred to as the “Dimension 85 PBX” (“Antelope” was the internal code name for the project). BTW, we referred to the operators on such systems as “attendants”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198.md?page=3)