The "Jobs You May Have Never Knew Existed" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Checking some of my desktop files I have saved over the years that had material I thought I might want to write about some time.  Wasn't long ago that I wrote a story telling of the jobs that existed when I was growing up in Lancaster County which have been fazed out by technology or were no longer necessary.  I used photos from one of the files to illustrate these jobs.  Well, I also found a file I had saved which had photographs and job descriptions of occupations that existed before I was born.  Never used it and was going to trash it until I realized I saved it since the jobs depicted in the photos were so interesting and in the case of two of the jobs, really unusual.  So, rather than trash the file I decided to use the material.  And, today you will get the chance to see what I at one time thought was interesting enough to keep. In case you may not have any idea what is depicted in each photo, I have given a brief explanation of what the job is that you are viewing. The older you are, the more you may remember the job or occupation. 

The job of the ice cutter was a tough one.  Large saws, similar to saws used to cut timber, were used to cut ice blocks that would be transported to ice factories for either crushing or selling for refrigeration.

These are ice blocks that are sold for ice boxes which were similar to our refrigerators, but not electrified.

A Knocker-upper was essentially an alarm clock.  They were hired to ensure that people would wake up on time for their jobs.  They would use sticks, clubs or pebbles to strike a client's window or door.

Lamplighters used long poles to light, extinguish and refuel street lamps - until electric lamps were introduced. 

This illustrates the job of the Lector.  A lector was someone who would read to you.  They were hired to read to large rooms full of manual laborers to keep them entertained.  This lector sits high above the workers.

Before radar, troops used acoustic mirrors and listening devices like these to focus and detect the sound of engines from approaching aircraft.

Rat catchers were employed in cities to control the rat population.  They ran high risks of suffering bites and infections, but helped prevent rodents from taking over a city.

Resurrectionists or body snatchers were hired in the 19th century to remove corpses from graves for universities to use as cadavers.  Cadavers from legal means were rare and difficult to obtain, so universities had to resort to other means to procure cadavers for their students.

This is a street railway car that was electrified.  Many towns had cars such as this and may have called them trolley cars.  This really neat car is from Fort Phoenix, Fairhaven, Mass.

This is a bit older method of transportation since horses were used to pull the cars rather than being electrified.  This photograph is dated 1924 and is from Toronto.

Now, I'm sure there were many other jobs that were common in past years that I didn't post, but this should give you an idea of what occupations existed years ago.  Some are very interesting while others are just plain gross.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.