Jobs Titles During the Industrial Era

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In Britain, there were many different jobs during the middle to late 19th century and the early 20th century. In the midst of the large multitude of jobs during this period, there were a few that were relatively safe and had a decent salary, there were the less desirable ones that were dangerous with a smaller salary, and then there were the extremely ridiculous jobs that nobody wanted, but had to unwillingly take due to the high levels of poverty during this time period. During class, we were to watch videos documenting what workers had to do if they had these ridiculously dangerous and terrible jobs. The videos started out with jobs that were mainly based upon repetitive manual labor. The first job from the videos was the water caddy, who had the tedious and backbreaking job of filling a barrel with about sixty-six pounds of water, and carrying the barrel across the city in order to deliver water to personal residences. This job served the same purpose as running water, but was carried out by people instead of pipes.

The next job was an early firefighter, whose only equipment was a man-powered helmet that had fresh air pumped into it by a contraption called a bellows from outside the building so that the wearer could breathe. The firefighter helmet was very heavy, bulky, and awkward and the wearer couldn’t see the ground due to the rectangular eye windows that didn’t allow sight below eye level. There were two more jobs that went along with the firefighter. One job was the Pumper, who stood outside and pumped on the bellows with their foot in order to pump air to the firefighter helmet. If they stopped pumping, then the firefighter would suffocate and die. The next job is the climber, who’s only equipment was a long ladder that...

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...a pugger as a tremendously tedious and tiring job. After deciding that I probably wouldn't like the task of being a pugger, I began to look through the aspects of the tanning job. Since the only present concerns that I had about the tanning job was the smell and the heat of the environment, I decided that it was a fairly tame job that wouldn't produce many negative affects. Through this long process of studying and analyzing these jobs, I came to the conclusion that being a tanner would have suited me the most if I had lived the late 18th and early 19th centuries. What job do you think that you Would be best suited for considering their situations? Why do you think that your choice of job would be the right choice for you? Do you think that you would be able to keep that job, and work it for a career in order to support yourself and a family during this early time?

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