What is a job that completely disappeared, but people used to do every day? – 17 trades that are lost to time

These days lots of people are worried about AI swooping in and taking their jobs. But if history is anything to go by, professions going by the weyside isn’t anything new.

Technological advances from the alarm clock to the printing press have made plenty of jobs obsolete. This prompted Uleannor to put the following question to users over at r/AskReddit:

‘What is a job that completely disappeared, but people used to do every day?’

These are the top answers from yesteryear that are sadly no more…

1.

‘Lamplighters were the first ones that came to mind. Someone had to walk around every evening lighting gas lamps by hand, then come back at dawn to put them out. Whole neighbourhoods depended on this one guy with a long pole and a ladder.’
-Chikavoo

2.

‘Ice Delivery — Like the Guy who used to haul huge blocks of Ice upstairs in city dwellings before modern refrigeration. Some in my family still call the refrigerator “The Icebox”‘
-Zestyclose-Head6448

3.

‘Video rental. The store in my hometown shut down 2 years ago. It was a good run🫡’
-Ok_Cheesecake6006

4.

‘Milk man’
-rareogre83

5.

‘Typesetters. The actual people moving physical type blocks around.’
-Live-Astronomer1685

6.

‘TV repair. We used to routinely get stuff repaired. There’s still a bit of that, but tv repair doesn’t exist anymore.’
-madcats323

7.

‘Gas station attendants. You roll in over the rubber cord “DING DING”. Attendant greets you with, “fill ‘er up? Regular or unleaded?” As the tank fills, he cleans your windshield, then asks, “need oil checked?” .39 cents per gallon then. Yuh! I’m old. Lol’
-Leather_Force7809

8.

‘Lighthouse keepers’
-JustAFrenchie90

9.

‘”computers” (mostly women who performed mathematical calculations)’
-wvdude