# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/101 "2016-10-02T18:53:01Z")
> [@dennishiding](#): > > [http://www.durangotrain.com/](http://www.durangotrain.com/) > > Looked like they still had a stoker. > > But yeah I don’t imagine there’s much more than this sort of specialty demand. They would not of had a stoker, but a fireman. His job would be stoking the fires, and maintaining water levels and boiler pressure. Along with watching the Left (?) side of the track. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/102 "2016-10-02T19:33:17Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Actually, the fuel used on the _DQ_ was [Bunker C](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_oil#Bunker_fuel) (AKA #6 fuel oil) which was one step up from tar; it was heated to make to move through the pipes better. I think she was built that way. > [@Snnipe\_70E](#): > > I was going to question the burning of bunker oil. But I looked at the picture. blacking out like that does look like bunker “c”. Oops. > > [File:DeltaQueenRacing.jpg - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DeltaQueenRacing.jpg) > > True bunker “c” needs to be heated to at least 130 degrees to pump it and around 180 degrees to atomize it properly in the burner. And if you spill a little while changing a burner the spilled oil may burn. Or if you spill it in a bilge water will float on top of it. I’m definitely not competent to say one way or the other. I can’t honestly say now whether the crew described it as burning “oil” or “Diesel oil”. But I can say that in normal operations, including initial acceleration from a standstill, it wasn’t leaving a heavy black trail like in that pic I linked. That strikes me as them “coal rolling” for the cameras in some way. A Google image search for [“delta queen” steamboat] returns a lot of pix of it underway leaving the sort of trail you’d expect from a modern diesel-powered boat like a tugboat: slightly sooty but mostly brown exhaust looking. The search will also return lots of pix of other steamboats that aren’t the DQ. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2016, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/103 "2016-10-02T19:55:39Z")
Once a common sight in American cities the guys who patroled the streets cleaning up horse shit are now part of a long-defunct profession. It was estimated in 1908 that New York City alone contained 120,000 horses. Can you imagine how much crap they produced each day? The manure, if not speedily cleaned up, was a potential health hazard, attracting swarms of flies. I think the cleaners were called White Wings because of their white uniform. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2016, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/104 "2016-10-02T22:59:12Z")
Elevator operator is a nearly defunct position, although there still may be some in high-end buildings. In the 1970s my summer job was as an elevator operator of manual elevators (operated by a [switch](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9hF5H_eN-j4/maxresdefault.jpg) instead of pressing buttons). There probably aren’t any of those left any more, at least in public use. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2016, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/105 "2016-10-02T23:06:02Z")
My defunct profession was a pin setter at a bowling alley after school. I doubt if any lanes still have manual pin-setting anymore. I also used to manally load clay pigeons at a trap-shoot. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2016, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/106 "2016-10-02T23:45:43Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > My defunct profession was a pin setter at a bowling alley after school. I doubt if any lanes still have manual pin-setting anymore. I also used to manally load clay pigeons at a trap-shoot. I figured there had to be a “vintage” bowling alley someplace that still had them: > **[Super bowl!](https://www.providencejournal.com/story/entertainment/2015/06/28/super-bowl/34036795007/)** > > The Hope Artiste Village sits in the circa-1889 Hope Webbing Company Mill, and the bowling alley was built in the 1920s as an amenity for employees. That’s duckpin rather than regular 10 pin, but they still have manual pinsetters. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/107 "2016-10-03T03:19:04Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > VCR repair would be one category that a general electronics repair person would work on. Just because one type went away doesn’t mean all types did. > > OTOH, modern electronics are virtually disposable upon first failure so repair shops have mostly, but not completely, disappeared. There are still places that scrounge for stuff at thrift shops and garage sales, fix them and sell them to working poor folk. > > But a lot of stuff just isn’t worth it. A few months ago I checked out for the first time a PC repair business I pass by a lot. The guy had, for example, several tablets for sale. All less powerful and more expensive than a $50 Amazon Fire Tablet. Ditto other stuff: desktops, laptops, etc. I think virus removal and such is they only way he can stay afloat. Didn’t seem to be in the phone screen repair business which is in fairly decent demand. There’s an electronics repair store near my home that has a well-worn sign that says “WE FIX: Computers - Televisions - Microwave Ovens”. When I went in there as a customer, I said, “Who gets their microwave fixed nowadays?” He replied that those under-the-counter units are not exactly disposable, and they do a lot of work on restaurant microwaves. They had a couple of TVs for sale in the waiting room, presumably not picked up for whatever reason. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/108 "2016-10-03T06:18:23Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I’m definitely not competent to say one way or the other. I can’t honestly say now whether the crew described it as burning “oil” or “Diesel oil”. > > But I can say that in normal operations, including initial acceleration from a standstill, it wasn’t leaving a heavy black trail like in that pic I linked. That strikes me as them “coal rolling” for the cameras in some way. > > A Google image search for [“delta queen” steamboat] returns a lot of pix of it underway leaving the sort of trail you’d expect from a modern diesel-powered boat like a tugboat: slightly sooty but mostly brown exhaust looking. The search will also return lots of pix of other steamboats that aren’t the DQ. blacking out on a boiler is from too little air. Either the fireman was a little slow on increasing the forced draft fans. Or if the boiler is natural draft and the fireman rapidly increases the firing rate too quickly. On steady state steaming it is easier to maintain an economy haze in the stack. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/109 "2016-10-03T07:02:11Z")
Do fullers, tuckers and walkers (in the making of woolen cloth) still exist? Or have their jobs been eliminated by automation or by changes in the manufacturing process? [Fulling - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulling) ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/110 "2016-10-03T11:48:37Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I think the cleaners were called White Wings because of their white uniform. You can see one at the end of the animated intro to **“Peabody’s Improbable History”**. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/111 "2016-10-03T12:50:07Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > The IBM proof machines I worked with had absolutely no capability to print anything on any check. You’re probably referring to a later development and a much different machine. > > I think you underestimate the power of optical scanners today. Even the Post Office uses them to read handwritten addresses. Not perfect, but they can read _almost_ anything. Humans only get the worst ones to interpret. OK, you’re old! 😛 You must be referring to proof machines used in the early [80’s and prior](https://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/vintage/vintage_4506VV2199.html). Since that time the [machines](https://www.google.com/search?q=modern+proof+encoding++machine&biw=1920&bih=1075&tbm=isch&imgil=71C2TObGnjIg6M%253A%253BQQHoAFjpHz7v1M%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.cdibanking.com%25252Fcheckencoders.html&source=iu&pf=m&fir=71C2TObGnjIg6M%253A%252CQQHoAFjpHz7v1M%252C_&usg= __PjRnP34iF02fgz9aorUuwqIcdwo%3D&ved=0ahUKEwi12__ x1b7PAhXGTSYKHZ3nB2kQyjcINg&ei=vVPyV_WIBcabmQGdz5_IBg#imgrc=71C2TObGnjIg6M%3A), in addition to sorting the checks, also print the amount keyed by the operator on to the MICR line of the check. OCR technology is not there yet, not to the level needed by the financial industry, as evidenced by the continued existence of [proof operator jobs](http://dot-job-descriptions.careerplanner.com/PROOF-MACHINE-OPERATOR.cfm)in all banks. ---
**Author:** ![Tootingkhamen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e36b37/32.png) [@Tootingkhamen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tootingkhamen)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/112 "2016-10-03T14:23:37Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > WAG: someone who prepares rags for paper-making. I think this must be it. This pub is close to the River Wandle which used to have something like 90 mills of various types along its length, including paper mills. If you search for “Rag Beating” then the term comes up as part of the paper-making process; I guess the pub lodger preferred the sound of “smash” ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/113 "2016-10-03T14:39:28Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > On a related note, it’s getting hard to find openings for superintendents of tuberculosis sanitariums and leper colonies. I can name two or three hospitals in my home town that began as sanitaria and have been in continuous operation since. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/114 "2016-10-03T14:53:14Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Lots of barrels are also made for the winemaking industry as well. Granted, barrels were much more in demand say… 100-150 years ago, but being a cooper is still a going profession, unlike some of the others that date from those days. True. Barrels used to be the default shipping container for bulk goods - as evidenced by the name of that chain restaurant with the folksy, general store ambience. There were even sub-categories of cooper - dry coopers, who made barrels that would contain nails and stuff, and the more exacting wet coopers, who made barrels that would contain liquid. Probably not many dry coopers around these days - corrugated cardboard is SO much cheaper. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/115 "2016-10-03T15:02:59Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > @ **malthus** : We had a similar thread not long ago about the idea of ancient process knowledge that’s supposedly been lost. We eventually got around to the conclusion that damn near nothing that humanity has ever learned how to do has been truly forgotten. For the reasons you enumerate. > > Somebody somewhere today knows how to knap a flint, tie it to a stick with grass & bark, and has killed a large herbivore using just such a self-made tool. And cooked and eaten part of the critter after starting a fire using makeshift found objects. ♫ So dress your ranks, lift your pikes, Tight as the teeth of a comb. Rattling, clanking down the road The War is going home ♫ … Leslie Fish - [Serious Steel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkwR8H3Oksk) ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/116 "2016-10-03T15:09:39Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Plague doctors. I’m pretty sure there are no more plague doctors. Tell that to the folks in the rural Southwest. _Yersinia pestis_ is alive and well and living in your local prairie dog colony ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/117 "2016-10-03T15:17:04Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Milkman? Iceman? Milk delivered by a milkman is available where I live. Iceman, you may have a point. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/118 "2016-10-03T16:22:22Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > I figured there had to be a “vintage” bowling alley someplace that still had them: > > [Super bowl!](http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150628/ENTERTAINMENTLIFE/150629425) > > That’s duckpin rather than regular 10 pin, but they still have manual pinsetters. If you count quasi-museums, which continue to have working industrial diaplays, no profession will ever cease to exist. I recently saw a video of a guy who demonstrates a Mergenthaler linotype machine at a museum. I once worked for a newspaper that used one, and the most amazing hours of my life were sitting there watching the operator run the machine. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/119 "2016-10-03T23:49:58Z")
> [@MacLir](#): > > Milk delivered by a milkman is available where I live. Iceman, you may have a point. We get milk delivered every week to our door. It’s local, fresh, relatively cheap and convenient. One relativey recent profession become defunct: [Game Play Counselor](http://www.avclub.com/article/what-was-it-be-nintendo-game-play-counselor-224289) If you were stuck on a game you’d call a hotline and an “expert” would give you tips to get you past where you were stuck. You’d pay a fee for the service. These days 5 seconds on Google will give you the same result. Nintendo finally retired the service for good in 2005. I doubt anyone is trying to offer that service anymore anywhere. I can’t find anything at least. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198/120 "2016-10-04T01:37:15Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Plague doctors. I’m pretty sure there are no more plague doctors. Infectious disease continues to be a very active specialty, albeit one of the lowest paid. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defunct-professions/767198.md?page=7)