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History is full of jobs that sound completely made up, but they were very real. In this video, Cara discusses the most bizarre roles in history like poison eaters, sin eaters, royal attendants, and more, showing just how strange work used to be and why these jobs disappeared.
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The Strangest Jobs in History You Won't Believe Existed | Mental Floss
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0:00
History is full of jobs that sound made up
0:02
Roles so unpleasant, dangerous, or just strange that it's hard to imagine anyone ever agreed
0:08
to do them. But they did. And in many cases, these jobs kept society running
0:12
Or at least kept leather soft, kinks comfortable, and kept logs from crushing entire towns
0:18
Hi I'm Cara, this is Mental Floss, and today we're diving into real jobs that used to exist
0:24
and thankfully don't anymore. In the early 1900s, the US Department of Agriculture recruited volunteers to intentionally
0:38
eat meals laced with contaminants. We're talking formaldehyde, sulfuric acid, and borax
0:44
the same borax that people use now to kill ants. Why? Because food manufacturers could
0:49
put basically anything into their products. There were no safety standards. So from 1902 to 1907, chemist Harvey Washington Wiley oversaw a team who ate three nutritious
1:02
yet dangerous meals a day. Naturally, they reported symptoms like headaches, stomach pain
1:07
and general misery. Their suffering pushed the government to ban harmful additives
1:12
Most participants survived, though one family later blamed a man's tuberculosis on too much
1:17
borax. If you think your job stinks, imagine collecting dog poop for a living. Before modern
1:23
tanning chemicals leather workers soften hides by using dog excrement they didn't gather it
1:28
themselves that was the work of pure finders pure referred to the poop's role in purifying the
1:34
leather and finder was a polite way of saying person who picks up dog droppings for money
1:39
pure finders roamed areas with lots of stray dogs hoping to score fresh inventory some even
1:45
befriended kennel owners for a steady supply competition was fierce enough to be described
1:50
as a brown gold rush. The job disappeared once science provided cleaner, enzyme-based tanning
1:56
methods. Before hospitals became the default place to die, which is a surprisingly recent development
2:02
death happened at home, surrounded by family, food, and ritual. And long before Victorian funeral
2:08
biscuits or the German corpse cakes that were left rising on a dead person's chest to absorb
2:13
their virtues, there was a much darker tradition for people who hadn't lived so virtuously. Enter
2:19
the Sin Eater Appearing in England and Wales as early as the 17th century Sin Eaters were called in when a family believed their loved one might be carrying too many sins into the afterlife Bread was placed on the chest of the corpse believed to draw out the
2:34
person's moral failings. The sin eater would sit facing the door, eat the bread, and wash it down
2:39
with ale, symbolically taking the dead person's sins into themself. It was a miserable profession
2:45
Sin eaters were usually houseless, despised by the church, and barely tolerated by the families
2:51
who hired them. After the ritual, mourners often shoved or struck the sin eater on their way out
2:56
hoping to drive away the pollution they now believed they carried. And for all that
3:01
the sin eater earned only the equivalent of a few dollars. The practice lasted far longer than you
3:07
might expect. England's last known sin eater, Richard Munslow, died in 1906. And while the
3:12
ritual faded in Britain, echoes of it still live on elsewhere. From dim sum-based sin eating in
3:18
some traditional Chinese funerals to Appalachian folklore about wanderers who take on the burdens
3:24
of the dead. In 18th century Britain, wealthy landowners sometimes hired an actual living person
3:30
to live on their land as an ornamental hermit. These men were expected to embody the ideal of
3:36
rustic solitude. Long hair, long beard, no grooming, no shoes, and absolutely no chatting with the
3:43
servants who delivered their meals. One of the most famous examples came from Charles Hamilton
3:47
who advertised for a hermit willing to live in total silence for seven years
3:52
The job came with very strict rules, a goat hair robe, uncut nails, and no stepping off the estate
3:59
If the hermit succeeded, he'd earn 500 to 700 pounds, roughly $95,000 to $130,000 today
4:07
According to legend, the man he hired, known only as Mr. Remington
4:11
lasted for about three weeks before being seen at a local pub. The craze peaked between the 1720s and the 1830s, when English gardens shifted from geometric
4:21
formality to natural landscapes with whimsical features. A hermitage, anything from a cave to a
4:27
tiny hut, became the accessory to have. Some estates even used automaton stand-ins when their
4:33
hermit was asleep or unavailable, complete with props like books, skulls, and hourglasses to
4:39
suggest deep philosophical contemplation. Not every hermitage had a resident. Many stood empty
4:45
serving as atmospheric retreats for the landowners themselves. But for a brief moment in Georgian
4:50
England nothing signaled status quite like having your own hermit roaming the garden At least until the trend faded in the early 19th century helped along by growing discomfort with how exploitative the role actually was Before modern medicine physicians believed that bloodletting could cure inflammation
5:07
That meant leeches were in high demand, and someone had to gather them. Collectors waded
5:12
into leech-infested waters and let the parasites latch onto their skin. Enough bites could leave
5:17
them weak from blood loss. Leeches eventually fell out of fashion until 2004, when the FDA
5:23
approved them for improving blood flow after reconstructive surgery. Today's leeches are
5:27
raised in labs and fed with blood-filled sausages instead of human collectors. In the Middle Ages
5:33
if you needed a haircut and a minor surgery, you could get both in the same chair. When priests
5:38
were banned from performing surgeries in the 13th century, barbers stepped in. They handled
5:42
everything from grooming to bloodletting. During the Black Death, demand skyrocketed as physicians
5:48
died off. Eventually, countries like France banned barbers from performing surgery, and the profession faded. But one relic may remain. The red, white, and blue barber pole
5:58
which some believe symbolizes blood, bandages, and veins. From the 1500s to the 1700s
6:04
English kings had attendants called grooms of the stool, one of the most notoriously
6:09
unpleasant jobs in royal history. The stool referred to the king's portable
6:14
commode, which traveled everywhere with him, along with water, towels, and a wash
6:18
bowl. The groom's job was to monitor and assist with the king's bowel movements
6:23
which meant keeping track of his diet, mealtimes, and even planning the royal
6:27
schedule around when nature would call. Surprisingly, this wasn't a job given to
6:32
low-ranking servants. It was usually awarded to sons of noblemen or members
6:36
the gentry. And over time, the role evolved into something more like a personal secretary
6:41
Grooms enjoyed high pay, prime lodging in every palace, the monarch's old clothing
6:45
and even the right to claim furnishings from the royal bedchamber. There's no solid historical
6:50
evidence to suggest that the groom actually helped the king wipe, though he almost certainly helped
6:55
him undress. Some monarchs relied heavily on this intimate attention. George III employed nine
7:01
different grooms during his reign, including John Stuart, who later became prime minister
7:05
The position, later known as Groom of the Stole, lasted astonishingly long
7:10
It wasn't abolished until 1901, when Edward VII finally ended the tradition
7:15
Before trucks and modern rail systems, massive log drives moved timber down rivers
7:20
River pigs balanced on floating logs used long poles to keep them moving and broke up jams that could stretch miles long and stack dozens of feet high It was extremely dangerous One slip could be fatal
7:34
River pigs worked in North Idaho until around the 1970s, but environmental damage and new technology finally ended the practice
7:41
Before streetlights, Londoners hired link boys, children who carried torches and guided people home at night
7:47
Many houses even had fuel extinguishers, so link boys could save fuel between customers
7:53
Most were honest, but some turned out to be thieves who snuffed their torches and robbed their clients
7:58
Gas street lamps in the early 1800s made the job unnecessary. In the 1800s, Hokey Pokey men sold cheap flavored ice and low quality ice cream to low income neighborhoods
8:08
Critics claimed the treats were unsanitary and people did get sick from contaminated products
8:14
Whether the outrage was about food safety or immigrant vendors is debated
8:18
But by the early 20th century, stricter food regulations ended the trade
8:22
Early US Navy ships had Loblolly boys. Assistants who cleaned surgical tools, restrained patients during operations
8:30
and disposed of amputated limbs. They also served a thick porridge called Loblolly
8:34
The role eventually evolved into the modern hospital corpsmen, minus the porridge and the amputations
8:40
In the 1930s and 40s, nightclubs and bars employed cigarette girls, hostesses who sold
8:46
tobacco from trays hung around their necks, often wearing eye-catching uniforms. Their job declined once cigarette vending machines took over in the 1950s
8:54
Some venues revived the look as a retro novelty, but the occupation itself mostly vanished along
9:00
with widespread smoking. Before smartphones, payphones were everywhere. 2.6 million of them in the US at their peak in 1995
9:08
And someone had to empty all those coin boxes. Collectors traveled from phone to phone, collecting quarters
9:14
The job wasn't usually dangerous, but in 1962, one collector in San Francisco was robbed
9:20
at gunpoint for $1,000 in coins. By the early 2000s, collectors could earn around $40,000 a year, roughly $71,000 today
9:29
But smartphones made payphones and their caretakers nearly obsolete. From poison eaters, to poop collectors, to kings with bathroom attendants
9:38
History is packed with jobs that make modern work look pretty great. Suddenly, my inbox doesn't seem so bad anymore
9:44
The next time you hate going to work, just remember, no one's asking you to eat borax
9:49
or live in a cave for seven years. Thanks for watching Mental Floss, I'm Cara, and I'll see you next time
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