Jobs from the past that no longer exist. Can you think of any?

I was a Metal Lather at the beginning, now we were absorbed into the carpenters. hardly no one does plaster and lath anymore.

on a different note a phone operator, I used to call them all the time for the time.
 
A punch card operator. Before PC's and computer terminals, data had to be entered into big old computers on punched cards. I always thought that would be a fun job.

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These are the machines that punched them:
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My first job was as a person who used a graphotype/addressograph machine. I had to type the names and addresses onto a small metal sheet, which was then placed into another machine to print the names and addresses onto an envelope to send to shareholders of the company.

From there, I moved onto a tape-writer. A machine that punched holes into long lengths of tape, which was then fed into another machine, to communicate with other branches of one the then largest companies in Australia.

I eventually learned how to use the "bookkeeping" machines. Huge monsters that were set up to use as many muscles as you had.

Lucky enough to finally moved onto the then, rather "modern" computers.

Huge main frame things that were kept in basements, to try to keep them cool.

I've managed, for the most part, to keep up with the advances in technology, though I do feel that I may be failing now in my later years.

It sure has changed, I'm not always sure that it has been for the better. Faster perhaps, but far less personal.

During the graphotype/addressograph years, I was also able to take part in type-setting newspapers. That was quite interesting, and I still have my signature, set in lead.
 
I also ran one of those old switchboards where you plugged one cord into the slot where the call was coming in and the other cord of that set into the extension they wanted. You really had to pay attention, or you could get everybody talking to the wrong people and get everybody all pissed off. If you had a call waiting for someone who was on the other line, we had little colored clothespins and put, say, a blue one on the waiting cord, and the other blue one on the cord of the busy line, so we could know who was waiting for who. The whole thing could get a lot more complicated than it looked.
 
One of my temp jobs was working on a teletype machine. Yow, was that a dinosaur. I hated that job.

And speaking of dinosaurs, I worked one job on one of the old switchboards that Butterfly mentioned (it HAD to be from the 40's at least) and, yes, we also used the colored clips to indicate which line was which. You had to be extremely careful when disconnecting because the cords would get all intertwined in the other ones and it was easy to pull the wrong one out. I remember having to tap the metal end of the cord to the socket to see if the person was on an internal call before putting calls through. Of course, I had to answer the call, put the call on "hold" and call the recipient to see if he'd take the call. Of course, he wouldn't (it was a construction company and most of the calls were from unhappy customers.....there's no way the construction guys had any intention of talking to the customer.) So, I'd have to take a detailed written message while all the lights were blinking and buzzing. It's a wonder my hair didn't turn grey at 18.

And then there was the hair-graying job of typing up contracts, four to six at a time using carbon paper. Carbon paper was my bete noir. Make a mistake, c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y roll the copies up, erase the mistake on each page with the lovely little round eraser with the brush on it, blow out all the eraser crumbs, and then c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y roll the paper back into the typewriter, hoping against hope that it will all line up the same.

In college, I worked part time at the national headquarters of a fraternity putting membership records on paper tape using a Flex-o-writer, the Mack Truck of typewriters. Clunk, clunk, clunk. At least you could back up the tape, punch it all out and start the entry over again if you made a mistake. TECHNOLOGY!!! I was moving up in the world.
 
jujube said:
One of my temp jobs was working on a teletype machine. Yow, was that a dinosaur. I hated that job.

And speaking of dinosaurs, I worked one job on one of the old switchboards that Butterfly mentioned (it HAD to be from the 40's at least) and, yes, we also used the colored clips to indicate which line was which. You had to be extremely careful when disconnecting because the cords would get all intertwined in the other ones and it was easy to pull the wrong one out. I remember having to tap the metal end of the cord to the socket to see if the person was on an internal call before putting calls through. Of course, I had to answer the call, put the call on "hold" and call the recipient to see if he'd take the call. Of course, he wouldn't (it was a construction company and most of the calls were from unhappy customers.....there's no way the construction guys had any intention of talking to the customer.) So, I'd have to take a detailed written message while all the lights were blinking and buzzing. It's a wonder my hair didn't turn grey at 18.

And then there was the hair-graying job of typing up contracts, four to six at a time using carbon paper. Carbon paper was my bete noir. Make a mistake, c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y roll the copies up, erase the mistake on each page with the lovely little round eraser with the brush on it, blow out all the eraser crumbs, and then c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y roll the paper back into the typewriter, hoping against hope that it will all line up the same.

In college, I worked part time at the national headquarters of a fraternity putting membership records on paper tape using a Flex-o-writer, the Mack Truck of typewriters. Clunk, clunk, clunk. At least you could back up the tape, punch it all out and start the entry over again if you made a mistake. TECHNOLOGY!!! I was moving up in the world.
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EEEW! I remember that awful carbon paper, too. I typed property appraisals with four carbons, and I so well remember the mess of erasing, rolling the whole thing up and back, etc. And it never really looked right after all that. It was indeed a hair-graying job. And it seemed the harder you tried not to make mistakes, the more you made. I threw many a batch away, and just started over.
 
Butterfly said:
I also ran one of those old switchboards where you plugged one cord into the slot where the call was coming in and the other cord of that set into the extension they wanted. You really had to pay attention, or you could get everybody talking to the wrong people and get everybody all pissed off. If you had a call waiting for someone who was on the other line, we had little colored clothespins and put, say, a blue one on the waiting cord, and the other blue one on the cord of the busy line, so we could know who was waiting for who. The whole thing could get a lot more complicated than it looked.
Click to expand...
I've never been able to figure out how the operators did all that, it looks SO complicated! One of my favorite episodes of Green Acres is when Oliver took over the phone company and he and Lisa were trying to make heads or tails of how to operate the switchboard, it was hilarious!! :) :)
 

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