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This is a list of obsolete occupations. To be included in this list an obsolete occupation must in the past have employed significant numbers of workers (hundreds or thousands as evidenced by, for example, census data). Rare occupations are excluded; for example, there were only 27 people in England & Wales who listed their occupation as phrenologist in the 1861 United Kingdom census.

To be included in this list an occupation must be completely, or to a great extent, obsolete. For example, there are still a few lamplighters retained for ceremonial or tourist purposes, but in the main the occupation is now obsolete. Similarly, there are still some manual switchboard operators and elevator operators which are required for security or old equipment reasons, but these are now considered to be obsolete occupations.

Only occupations which are notable, well-defined, and adequately documented in secondary sources are included in this list.

Causes for occupations to become obsolete

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  • Technological/scientific/process efficiency change,[1][2] for example making lime in factories on a large scale rather than by lime-burners on a small scale. Another example is the continuous changes in occupations in the textile industry in the 19th century caused by mechanization.[3]: 247  In recent times, the workplace impact of artificial intelligence has arisen as a concern for widespread job changes and/or decline.[4][5]
  • Cultural/fashion change, for example hoop skirt and crinoline manufacturers were significant employers in the 1850s and 1860s but they declined significantly in later years as fashions changed.[6]
  • Safety/security change, for example climbing boys became politically unacceptable because of the danger to children involved in the job.[7]
  • Social change, e.g. the Workhouse as a way of dealing with the poor, or the elimination of much child labour so that they could attend school.[8]
  • Debunked as pseudoscience, for example phrenologists[9]: 266 [10]: 137 
  • Environmental change: over-farming, over-exploitation and deforestation. For example, the trading of ivory has become heavily restricted over recent decades, especially in the Western world, following the international CITES agreement and local legislation, which has put ivory carvers out of work.[11]
  • Legal/regulatory change, for example the Victorian-era law that made available more cadavers to medical schools, thus signalling the death-knell to body snatchers;[12] or the passing of the 18th (1919) and 21st (1933) amendments to the US constitution leading to the rise and fall of the bootlegger trade.[13]

List of obsolete occupations

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The table lists information about obsolete occupations

Occupation: name of the occupation
Description: description of the occupation
Reason: reason for occupation becoming obsolete
Start: century that the occupation started, for example -3 indicates 3rd century BC and -99 indicates prehistoric
End: century that the occupation ended, for example 15 indicates 15th century AD
Image: image of the occupation


Occupation Description Reason Start End Image
Armourer (chain mail) Armourers constructed chain mail by riveting together iron or steel rings. Chain mail was more flexible and less tailored to an individual than the later plate armour. For the wealthy, plate armour was preferred to chain mail as it provided better protection, however chain mail continued to be used by other soldiers until modern firemans rendered it ineffective in preventing serious injury.[14] -3 17 Mail_armour_Władysław_IV_Vasa
Armourer (plate armour) Armourers constructed a suit of armour by fitting armour to the individual wearer like a tailor. A full suit of high quality fitted armour was very expensive and restricted their clientele exclusively to the wealthy. The development of powerful firearms made all but the finest and heaviest plate armour obsolete.[15] 14 17 Meno_Mühlig_-_In_der_Waffenschmiede
Buckle-maker Buckle-makers made metal buckles for shoes and other uses. Separate buckles remained fashionable until they were abandoned in the years after the French Revolution.[6]: 322 [16] 17 19 -
Elevator operator An elevator operator ran a manually operated elevator. Elevator operators still work in some historic or specialist installations and fill modern niches, such as in luxury hotels and Japanese department stores.[17] The introduction of automated elevators combined with operator strikes led to the almost complete elimination of elevator operators.[18] 19 20
Ivory carver Ivory carvers carved animal teeth or tusks, generally by using sharp cutting tools, to produce decorative objects. As ivory-producing species have become endangered through hunting, legislation has reduced the availability of ivory and hence the demand for ivory carvers.[11] -99 20
Keypunch operator Keypunch operators keyed data or programs onto physical media, for example punched cards, so that it could be read by machines, for example computers. Keypunch operators were made obsolete by data entry systems which allowed data and program originators to enter it directly instead of writing it on forms to be entered by keypunch operators.[19] 19 20
Knocker-up A knocker-up's job was to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time. A knocker-up was often employed to wake up workers on shifts, particularly in factory areas, but was also sometimes self-employed.[20] As alarm clocks became less expensive and more reliable, there was no longer a need to pay a knocker-up.[21][22] 18 20
Lamplighter Lamplighters toured public streets at dusk, lighting outdoor fixtures by means of a wick on a long pole. At dawn, the lamplighter would return to put them out using a small hook on the same pole. Electric street lighting, which does not require lamplighters, replaced candles and oil and gas lamps. Additionally, gas lighting is more expensive than electric lighting.[23][24] 16 20
Limeburner Limeburners loaded, fired, cooled and unloaded a lime kiln in a one-week cycle. The work was physically strenuous and somewhat dangerous as the end-product (lime or CaO) is caustic. Lime was used as a building material. Local small-scale kilns became increasingly unprofitable, and they gradually died out through the 19th century. They were replaced by larger industrial plants with more efficient kilns.[25] -7 20
Link-boy A link-boy was a boy who carried a flaming torch to light the way for pedestrians at night. Linkboys were common in London in the days before street lighting. The introduction of gas lighting in the 19th century rendered the occupation of link-boy obsolete.[26] 15 19
Mute A mute stood at funerals with a sad, pathetic face. A symbolic protector of the deceased, the mute would wear sombre clothing including a black cloak, a top hat with trailing hatbands, and gloves. Child mutes were present at some Victorian funerals, as described in Dickens's Oliver Twist and Martin Chuzzlewit, but have since fallen out of fashion.[27]. Other types of professional mourners are still employed in some Asian countries. 17 20
Oakum picker Oakum, a preparation of hemp or jute used to seal gaps, was recycled from old tarry ropes, which were unravelled and reduced to fibre. This activity was a common occupation in prisons and workhouses, where inmates who could not do heavy labour were put to work picking oakum. The Poor Relief Act 1601 had provided for a "convenient stock of Flax, Hemp ... to set the poor on work". The activity became uneconomic as free workhouse labour was phased out and the cost of paid labour exceeded the value of the recycled material.[28][29] 16 19 picking oakum
Sawyer A sawyer sawed wood using a pitsaw, either in a saw pit, or with a log on trestles above ground. The sawyer cut lumber to length for the building market (now done more efficiently in a sawmill), and for the consumer market (now often done in a home improvement store).[30]: 60  18 20
Stocking weaver A stocking weaver made stockings using silk, wool, linen or cotton and was paid on the basis of piece work. Stockings made inexpensively in factories from artificial fabrics (rayon in the 1920s, then nylon in the 1940s) have eliminated the occupation of stocking weaver.[30]: 68 [31] 16 20
Switchboard operator A switchboard operator connected calls by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks on a manual telephone switchboard. Switchboard operators were gradually phased out and replaced by automated systems, first those allowing direct dialing within a local area, then for long-distance and international direct dialing.[32][33] 19 20
Tallow chandler A tallow chandler made and sold tallow candles, which were a less expensive, but lower quality, alternative to wax candles. Tallow candles were replaced first by wax candles and then by electric lighting.[30]: 74 [34][35] 13 20
Telegraph operator A telegraph operator used telegraphy to send and receive messages over long distances. A variety of methods have been employed, such as optical, electrical, wireless (or radio), and reflected sunlight. Competition from the telephone, which had a speed advantage, drove the telegraph into decline from 1920 onwards. The few remaining telegraph applications were largely taken over by alternatives on the internet towards the end of the 20th century.[36][37] 18 20
Wool comber A wool comber cleaned and prepared wool into a state ready for it to be spun into worsted. The wool comber used heated steel combs to comb the wool. The invention of the wool combing machine in the late 18th century and its progressive use in factories rendered manual wool combing inefficient.[30]: 90 [38] -99 19

See also

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Category:Obsolete occupations.

References

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  1. ^ Autor, David H. (2015-08-01). "Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation". Journal of Economic Perspectives. 29 (3): 3–30. doi:10.1257/jep.29.3.3.
  2. ^ Bix, Amy Sue (2000). Inventing Ourselves Out of Jobs? Americas Debate over Technological Unemployment, 1929- 1981. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 376. ISBN 0-8018-6244-2.
  3. ^ Thompson, E.P. (1963). The Making of the English Working Class. London: Gollancz. p. 851. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  4. ^ Howard, John (2019-11-01). "Artificial intelligence: Implications for the future of work". American Journal of Industrial Medicine. 62 (11): 917–926. doi:10.1002/ajim.23037. ISSN 0271-3586. PMID 31436850. S2CID 201275028.
  5. ^ "Impact of AI on Jobs: Jobocalypse on the Horizon?". 14 July 2023.
  6. ^ a b Tortora, Phyllis G.; Marcketti, Sara B. (2015). Survey of Historic Costume (6th ed.). Bloomsbury. p. 721. ISBN 978-1-62892-167-0.
  7. ^ Phillips, George Lewis (1949). Climbing Boys: A Study of Sweeps' Apprentices 1772–1875. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  8. ^ Longmate, Norman (1974). The Workhouse. London: Temple Smith. ISBN 978-0-7126-0637-0. Retrieved 2024-09-11.
  9. ^ Williams, William F., ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience. New York: Facts on File, Inc. p. 456. ISBN 0-8160-3351-X.
  10. ^ Hines, Terence (2002). Pseudoscience and the Paranormal: a critical examination of the evidence. New York: Prometheus Books. p. 372. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  11. ^ a b Lemieux, A. M.; Clarke, R. V. (2009). "The International Ban on Ivory Sales and its Effects on Elephant Poaching in Africa". British Journal of Criminology. 49 (4): 451. doi:10.1093/bjc/azp030.
  12. ^ Richardson, Ruth (1989). Death, dissection, and the destitute. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 426. ISBN 9780140228625. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
  13. ^ Allsopp, Kenneth (1961). The Bootleggers: The Story of Chicago's Prohibition Era. Four Square. p. 512. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
  14. ^ Stone, George Cameron (1934). A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms And Armor in All Countries and in All Times. The Southworth Press. p. 712. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  15. ^ Curl, Michael (2012). "The Industry of Defence: A Look at the Armour Industry of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century". Medieval Warfare. 2 (1): 38–42. JSTOR 48578631.
  16. ^ Rowlands, Marie B. (1975). Masters and men in the West Midland metalware trades before the industrial revolution. Manchester University Press. p. 216. ISBN 0-7190-0582-5. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  17. ^ "Liftboy - Does the elevator operator still exist?". Schindler. 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  18. ^ Andreas, Bernard (2014). Lifted : a cultural history of the elevator. Translated by Dollenmayer, David. New York University Press. p. 309. ISBN 978-0-8147-8716-8.
  19. ^ Fierheller, George A. (2014-02-07). Do not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate: The "hole" story of punched cards (PDF). Markham, Ontario, Canada: Stewart Publishing & Printing. ISBN 978-1-894183-86-4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-07-09. Retrieved 2018-04-03. (NB. An accessible book of recollections (sometimes with errors), with photographs and descriptions of many unit record machines.)
  20. ^ Waters, Colin (1999). A dictionary of old trades, titles and occupations. Countryside Books. ISBN 1-85306-601-X. Retrieved 2024-09-11.
  21. ^ Peek, Sitala (27 March 2016). "Knocker uppers: Waking up the workers in industrial Britain". BBC News. Retrieved 2024-09-18.
  22. ^ Akanksha, Singh (September 5, 2023). "Who and What Was a Knocker-Upper?". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved 2024-09-18.
  23. ^ Schivelbusch, Wolfgang (1987). "The Policing of Street Lighting". Yale French Studies (73): 61–74. doi:10.2307/2930197. JSTOR 2930197.
  24. ^ Cambre, Aren (30 October 2005). "Gas Lamps are Expensive". Retrieved 2024-09-08.
  25. ^ Carran, D.; Hughes, J.; Leslie, A.; Kennedy, C. (2012). "A Short History of the Use of Lime as a Building Material Beyond Europe and North America". International Journal of Architectural Heritage. 6 (2): 117–146. doi:10.1080/15583058.2010.511694. S2CID 111165006.
  26. ^ "Old links with London's link boys". New York Times. March 8, 1964. p. 18. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
  27. ^ Puckle, Bertram S. (1926). Funeral Customs: Their Origin and Development. London: T. W. Laurie, Ltd. Retrieved 2024-09-11.
  28. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Oakum". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 935.
  29. ^ "Poor Law 1601". Socialist Health Association. Retrieved 2024-09-11.
  30. ^ a b c d Drury, Elizabeth, ed. (2006) [1818]. A book of English trades: being a library of the useful arts. Swindon: English Heritage. p. 92. ISBN 978 1 85074 978 3. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
  31. ^ Olson, Nancy (2014-05-09). "A Revolution in Stockings | Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum". www.cooperhewitt.org. Retrieved 2024-09-09.
  32. ^ "Pulling the Plug : Phone Company to Replace Last Manual Switchboard". Los Angeles Times. 8 April 1991.
  33. ^ Feigenbaum, James; Gross, Daniel P. (August 2024). "Answering the Call of Automation: How the Labor Market Adjusted to Mechanizing Telephone Operation". Quarterly Journal of Economics. 139 (3): 1879–1939. doi:10.1093/qje/qjae005.
  34. ^ "Let there be light – The City of London and the Tallow Candle Trade". Retrieved 2024-09-09.
  35. ^ Phillips, Gordon (1999). The Tallow Chandlers Company - Seven Centuries of Light. Granta Editions. p. 289. ISBN 9781857570649.
  36. ^ Muse, Tyler (March 7, 2024). "The telegraph operator". History Oasis. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  37. ^ MgGillem, Clare D. (September 16, 2024). "Telegraph". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  38. ^ Burnley, James (1889). The history of wool and woolcombing. London: S. Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington. p. 487. Retrieved 2024-09-19.

Further reading

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