Fountain of Knowledge

An important, and I think, interesting thing to remember is the amount of manual labor required to just get through a day. In our time, we have many low maintenance machines and services. Back then, they did not. There were no TV diners. To eat something after work, someone had to buy that evening’s food (iceboxes perhaps, refrigerators and freezers, no, so most food had to be purchased close to consumption), prepare the food for cooking, cook the food (no gas ovens so gathering wood or coal), lay out the table and clean. To maintain a modern family’s lifestyle would take a staff of twelve or so butlers, maids at various levels. We also need to add the iceman, coalman who deliver their wares to households. I’m not sure about how ice was made back then, but I read about coal manufacture from wood, so add woodcutters, and teams of men burning out moisture to make charcoal. Alternately, coal miners for anthracite coal. Side note: Making wheel spokes wastes a lot of wood. Henry Ford hated waste, so he reused wood scraps. The result was Kingsford charcoal.

It is easy to find jobs by breaking down modern practices into past technology. A machinist turning out furniture legs, for example, requires a lathe. There is no electricity, so you need a steam engine to power a system of belts. The steam engine requires an engineer to operate it and a coal shoveler to keep the fire going. Most of the parts are external. They get dirty and need cleaning and lubrication during operation. Many shop apprentices and assistants run around servicing machines throughout the day, and so on.