User:GreatStellatedDodecahedron/Vanished trades
This is a list of obsolete occupations.
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Selection criteria (also known as inclusion criteria or membership criteria) should be unambiguous, objective, and supported by reliable sources. Avoid original or arbitrary criteria that would synthesize a list that is not plainly verifiable in reliable sources. In cases where the membership criteria are subjective or likely to be disputed, it is especially important that inclusion be based on reliable sources given with inline citations for each item.
Common selection criteria: Lists are commonly written to satisfy one of the following sets of objective criteria:
Every entry meets the notability criteria for its own article in the English Wikipedia. Red-linked entries are acceptable if the entry is verifiably a member of the listed group and it is reasonable to expect an article could be forthcoming in the near future. Red-linked entries should be accompanied by citations sufficient to show that the entry is sufficiently notable for an article to be written on it (i.e., citations showing significant coverage in reliable sources independent of the subject). This standard prevents Wikipedia from becoming a collection of indiscriminate lists; prevents individual list articles from becoming targets for spam and promotion; and keeps individual lists to a size that is manageable for readers."
Criteria for inclusion in this list
[edit]- The occupation had in the past employed significant numbers of workers (hundreds or thousands as evidenced by, for example, census data). Rare occupations are not included, for example Her Majesty The Queen as recorded in the United Kingdom Census of 1851, 1861 and 1871.
- The occupation is notable, well-defined and adequately documented in secondary sources.
- The occupation is 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.
Causes for occupations to become obsolete
[edit]- Demand change leading to an increase or decrease in the supply of workers, for example a model of car becomes popular so that more workers are taken onto the production line, for example to man a new night-shift
- 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; or the canal workers who walked a boat through tunnels before engines replaced horses; or the workers who made dyes from natural products being replaced by a different set of workers who made dyes from chemical reactions. In recent times, the workplace impact of artificial intelligence has arisen as a concern for widespread job changes and/or decline.[3][4]
- Economic change, for example the Shivers came into existence, and then as quickly disappeared due to a foreign trade disruption in the delivery of cork bungs during the Peninsula War; or the virtual elimination of inexpensive clothes manufacturing in Britain by cheaper foreign competition; or a prolonged depression
- Cultural/fashion change, for example hoop skirt and crinoline manufacturers were significant employers in the 1850s and 1860s but were not in later years.
- Safety/security change, for example climbing boys became socially unacceptable because of the danger involved in the job
- 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
- Political change, for example (de-)nationalization of industry; or creation of the National Health Service, led to the creation of new jobs such as health administrators; or the Revolutionary war prevents the importation of a commodity, American cotton, rendering English clothing workers unemployed
- Division of tasks between specialisms, for example the breaking away of the surgeons from the barbers
- Debunking as pseudoscience, for example phrenologists[5][6]
- Control on the number of workers in a specialized field, by apprenticeship, exams, a quota, trade union membership (closed shop restrictions), for example actuaries
- Weather, for example excessive frost, disease, wind or rain wipes out a crop, so seasonal pickers have no work to do
- Environmental change, for example over-farming and deforestation leading to the Dustbowl; or the Irish potato famine, putting farmers out of work; or the slaughter of elephants putting ivory artisans out of work
- 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;[7] 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.[8]
 |
| Occupation | Description of occupation | Reason for occupation ending | Start date | End date | Refs. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | 3rd century BCE | 17th century | [9] |
| 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. | 14th century | 17th century | [10] |
| Oakum picker | Oakum, a preparation of tarred fibers 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 activity became uneconomic as the labour cost exceeded the value of the recycled material. | unknown | 19th century | [11] |
| 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. | 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. | 7500–6000 BCE | 1920s | [12] |
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Impact of AI on Jobs: Jobocalypse on the Horizon?". 14 July 2023.
- ^ Wihe, J. V. (2002). "Science and Pseudoscience: A Primer in Critical Thinking". Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience. California: Skeptics Society. pp. 195–203.
- ^ Hines, T. (2002). Pseudoscience and the Paranormal. New York: Prometheus Books. p. 200.
- ^ Richardson, Ruth (1989). Death, dissection, and the destitute. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 426. ISBN 9780140228625. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
- ^ Allsopp, Kenneth (1961). The Bootleggers: The Story of Chicago's Prohibition Era. Four Square. p. 512. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
- ^ Stone, G.C. (1934): A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms And Armor in All Countries and in All Times, Dover Publications, New York
- ^ Curl, Michael. "The Industry of Defence: A Look at the Armour Industry of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century". Medieval Warfare, vol. 2, no. 1, 2012, pp. 38–42. JSTOR 48578631. Accessed 17 June 2021.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
