WEBVTT - Jobs of Bygone Eras 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you should know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.720 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.760 and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryan, there's Casper the Ghost 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:23.240 or your producer. Hi Casper. Yeah, Jerry's on vacation. Guest 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:26.759 producer Tristan came in and tapped the record button with 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:30.440 his nose as his per tradition, and then he left. 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.640 Here we are. That's the new tradition. People just come 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:36.760 in and be like, yeah, here you go. See remember 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:38.640 the old days when guest producers would claim her to 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:41.559 get in here and witness the magic. I remember, I 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.680 can remember. Now they draw lots and just go all right. 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:46.960 I guess I'll go hit record and leave. I'd like 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:50.240 to think it's because they're all overworked. That's why it's 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.800 not like, you know, we're past a No, it could 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:56.600 be both, though. I guess how you doing. I'm doing 0:00:56.600 --> 0:00:59.640 good man. I'm excited about this one. It's nice to 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:04.280 have something that doesn't, you know, have that much weight 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:08.560 to it. Yeah, I needed a little lighter break. Uh 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:12.039 and big thanks by the way to Denver, Colorado. Just 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:15.280 came back from Denver for two sold out shows. Two 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:18.080 great shows. Yeah, and it was. It was a lot 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:21.399 of fun. I had fun as well. It was a 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:23.680 good show. I think that second one, for my money, 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:27.000 is the one we should release, as are the version 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:29.360 of that show. Which live shows have we released? I 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:35.119 know Chicago was Pinto's pr PRR toes was Atlantic because 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:37.720 that was the benefit show? And what about dB Cooper 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.600 dB Cooper with Seattle I believe, and then Grave Robbing 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:43.440 was somewhere in the UK, I would imagine. I think 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:45.360 I think it was London, all right. So we have 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.960 not released a Denver show. No, we definitely haven't. We 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:51.920 have not, so this could be the one. If you 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.840 ask me, it was just on and popping well money, 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:57.720 You know me, I don't like to overthink these things, 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.160 so I'm generally just prone to say it's good enough 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:02.120 for you, it's good enough for me. That's very nice 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:07.000 of you. Let's me get away with a lot. That's right. Um, 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:13.200 all right, well chuck, um hmm. I'm prepared now, are you? Yes? Well, 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:17.280 then let us speak in talking about jobs that just 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:21.200 aren't around anymore, the old stuff you should know. Top ten, 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:24.600 which means we'll do what eight maybe if we feel 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:28.480 like it certainly not ten. I'll tell you that I agree. 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:31.840 So there's actually this article I thought started out pretty 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.640 cleverly talking about some jobs that are probably going to 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:38.440 be extinct in the near future, at least as far 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.880 as the US Bureau of Labor Statistics is concerned. I 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:44.680 didn't even look at that part. So so there's a 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:49.320 few coming up word processors and typists. Not not a 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.600 lot of time left on that profession. Door to door 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:57.799 sales workers, which I took issue with because I can 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:00.840 see people wanting that personal touch of being bothered and 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:05.280 harassed by a salesperson. You know happened, Yeah, I think 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:07.480 now it mostly happens like didn't you want to sign 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.800 this this um petition or something like that, especially the 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:13.360 door to door thing, not like here's a vacuum cleaner 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.240 or set of Encyclopedia Britannicas. I do you know how 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:18.640 just blown away you would be if somebody came up 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:20.680 to your door and tried to sell you a vacuum cleaner. 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:22.240 You'd be like, what's your angle? Are you case in 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:25.680 my house or Encyclopedia's I mean, that's even moral fashion. 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.160 At least you still use vacuum cleaners. Yeah, for sure, 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.840 that's true. The last one on this list was mail carriers, 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:35.600 which will I don't know, man, I could see, I 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.000 could see there's always going to be a need for 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:42.160 physical correspondence, or there will be for a very long time. 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.400 I don't know about that one. But the upshot of 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.360 all this is is this, Chuck, there's this guy who 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:50.280 you boat you and I know, uh named John Maynard Keynes, 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:55.000 and he is an economist. He was an economist liberal economist, 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:59.800 and he will wrote back in an essay called Economic 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.400 Stabilities of our Grandchildren, and it's actually like a quick 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.960 easy read. But then he basically said a hundred years 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.480 hence so by we will have done away with work, 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:14.280 will have automated basically every process you can think of, 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:16.880 and humans will be totally out of work. And he 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:20.000 said that will be a really good thing, because we 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:23.359 will still be generating wealth, but we just won't have 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:26.680 to work. So people will start writing bad poetry and 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:30.200 painting terrible paintings, and eventually we'll get better and better, 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:32.719 and there'll be like a big blooming of the arts 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.919 and of like interpersonal relationships and things like that, and 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.240 we'll just be able to hang out and chill, and 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:41.479 we've come close to that. But there's a lot of 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:46.200 a lot of holes in Keynes's argument, whereas like if 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:47.960 you if you're gonna do this, you kind of have 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:50.279 to figure out a way to distribute the wealth evenly, 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:52.840 or else you just end up with the people who 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:54.960 own the machines are the ones who get wealthy, and 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:57.280 everybody else is just out of work. But setting all 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:01.360 of that aside, there is a silverlyinging to the idea 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.040 that jobs can be extinct. And these this list of 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:07.960 jobs to me kind of shows like, Okay, you know, 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:11.160 we move on without this kind of stuff. Yes, it's 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.080 rough for the people who had that job, but you 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:17.159 can get new training and learn another job, which for 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:20.000 my money is part and parcel with getting rid of 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:23.000 one job. You need to train somebody for another job 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.880 as long as we humans can work. Yeah, And it's uh, 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:29.520 I think with most jobs it's not like I mean, 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:33.560 in some cases the thing just no longer exists, but 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:37.520 if it's replaced by a better or newer technology or both, 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.240 then then that becomes the job. So I've never bought 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:44.279 into this whole, like, you know, we need to protect 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:51.240 these jobs that are surely antiquated just to keep these 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:53.440 people in work. It's like, no, man, you've got to 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:55.960 roll at the times you do. But I think that 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.919 one of the rules of like government or even industry 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:03.960 is to to provide training to keep up with those times. 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.800 Sure if if so, someone so chooses for sure. Sure. Yeah. Now, 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:10.240 if it's all robots doing everything all the time, then 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:11.760 we should be able to choose not to and you 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:15.440 should have a nice universal basic income. But someone has 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:18.640 to build and fix those robots, and well you build 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:22.000 other robots to do that, all the materials and at 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:24.159 some point, I just I don't think I agree with 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.000 him fully that nobody will be working at some point 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:32.520 you disagree with Can's all right, let's get to it. 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:35.200 Because first, the first job on this list, I don't 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:37.400 think anybody was really sad to see go, although that's 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.520 not necessarily true. There were fans well, and I know 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:44.000 one person in particular it was probably pretty sad. Oh well, 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:50.000 we'll get to him, okay. Chariot racing, Yeah, that's an 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.440 extinct job. You cannot anywhere in the world find a 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.400 professional chariot racer as far as we know. Yeah, but 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.440 this was one that was a very very big sport 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:05.480 back in the day and was literally like NASCAR was today, 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:08.000 very much so. Yeah, I mean they had, uh, if 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:10.360 you if you look at let's say they called this 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:14.120 the tracks circuses, if you look at Circus Maximus in 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:17.280 ancient Rome, this thing, I mean, these things started out 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:19.040 where people could just like sit on the hillside and 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.840 watch races, but it evolved into Circus Maximus, which held 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.600 a hundred and fifty thousand spectators. I saw two hundred 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:30.559 and fifty really. Yeah, well, let's just say it's somewhere 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:33.880 between that then, right between those two numbers. Either way, 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.120 it's super impressive, agreed. Yeah, And of course, if you 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.640 don't know what a chariot races, it's very simple. It's 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:43.720 just a race where a horse pulls a man in 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.840 a in a little two wheeled vehicle called a chariot. Yeah. 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:50.760 Everyone's seen a chariot, and the depictions I've always seen 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:54.960 from cartoons to movies actually apparently were very um accurate. 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:57.680 It's like closed off in the front and then kind 0:07:57.680 --> 0:07:59.480 of tapered down the sides and open in the back. 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.120 There was one axle with two wheels and it was 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:06.040 connected to a team of horses. Usually about four horses, 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:09.880 maybe two maybe six um and it went really really 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:12.920 fast and it was really really flimsy. So if you 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.280 collided with another chariot, there was a pretty good chance 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:17.160 your chariot was going to disintegrate and you were going 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:19.480 to be in trouble. Yeah, I mean just sort of 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:23.160 like modern race cars. The chariots they designed for military battle, 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.360 we're not like this. They were very sturdy, often had 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:29.000 a lot of metal and reinforcements. But if you were 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:31.160 out there racing, you know, you wanted to win, so 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.280 your chariot was super light, probably just made of wood. 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:37.120 You were probably standing on that axle. It's not like 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:39.400 they you know, you were sitting on some big throne 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:42.640 in the center of your chariot. And uh, it was 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:44.439 sort of like horse racing. They would you would draw 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:48.960 lots for position, they would drop the white cloth, uh, 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.840 and then up to twelve racers at a time, you know, 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:54.760 the gates would open and you were off. Yeah, and 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:57.839 there were the height of the Roman Empire. There were 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:00.360 four and then later on six teams. It was a 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:02.280 red team, a white team, a blue team, and a 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:06.120 green team originally, then they added purple and gold and 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:08.760 like you said, this is like NASCAR. Are people devoted 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:11.400 to these teams like they're devoted to racers today, or 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:16.520 like to football or soccer today? Um? Just fanatics. There 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:18.800 was a story that Pliny wrote of a guy who 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.400 is a fan of the Red team and when one 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:24.960 of the Red team racers died, the fan threw himself 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:29.360 onto his funeral pyre killed himself out of grief. Wow, 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:35.520 which you know that happens weekly in NASCAR, you know, Uh, 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:42.800 except they throw themselves on their their turkey friar. I 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.360 don't know why I think that. I think that's probably 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:47.320 pretty accurate, man. I bet there's a lot of turkey 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.360 friars or maybe their barbecue pit, how about that? Sure? 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.480 So the dude I mentioned that was probably pretty sad 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:55.920 to see it go, although he did finish his career, 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.520 it's not like the sport went away. His name was 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:03.280 Gaius Diocles. I haven't heard of this cat. He was 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:07.120 someone who was likely one of the most rich people 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:11.480 in ancient Rome that was not a member of you know, 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:15.400 royalty or whatever. He raced from the eighteen to the 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:19.960 age of forty two, close to races, and I was 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:23.760 trying to find out some sort of some kind of 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:28.640 ballpark conversion of their money compared to our money today, 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:31.560 and most everyone with a brain on the internet and 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:35.880 internet said no, don't even bother, although some people were like, 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.679 it's really just like a one to one ratio, So 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:43.160 I don't buy that. But supposedly he amassed a wealth 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:47.360 of thirty six million whatever you however, you pronounced that 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:51.680 sesster cs. I haven't seen that word before. Ever, that 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:53.400 was their money. I don't know s E S T 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:56.640 E r c E s. Yeah, I've never seen that. 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.600 So I mean, let's say it is a dollar then 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.960 about thirty six million bucks, which made him one of 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:08.120 the richest people. Yeah, it is. It is impossible that 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.720 the ratio or the conversion is a dollar to like 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.000 one to one, I would think, so right, Yeah, that's 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:18.200 totally impossible. Yeah, that was just some dummy on answer 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:20.520 this dot com or something. Yeah, I'm tired of thinking 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:22.240 about this. Just say it's wonder why. I think it 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.920 was from the webs website take a stab at it 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:28.840 dot com. But that guy raised from eight to two 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:31.600 huh eighteen years old, and apparently he not only was 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.360 super rich, but he kept a lot of records of 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:36.480 his races. So he's one of the only people we 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.000 can look back on and say, you know, he raced this. 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:40.400 I mean he only one about a third of his 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:42.640 races to it looked like so. But even still just 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:46.360 surviving that many races as boggling, like this is really dangerous. 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.559 You know, like if you're if your chariot basically exploded, 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:53.920 you had lashed the reins to your horses around your 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:57.840 waist to stabilize yourself better, and you were still connected 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:00.000 to your horses by your waist and now they were dry. 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.080 I give you possibly to death. So most most most 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.559 racers carried a knife on them to cut themselves loose 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:10.520 in case they weren't always quick enough with it. Yeah, 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:12.800 and then you had to get your knife out while 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.600 you're being drug at however many miles an hour or 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:20.880 whatever they used to distinguish speed. Plus there's always like 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:23.280 a bad guy villain like in the ban Her race, 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:25.640 who was trying to like chop up your chariot and 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:28.120 whip you. Yeah. I didn't see rules as far as 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:31.160 that went, is like were they clean races or was 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.960 it you could you know, stick a a staff through 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.600 somebody's wheel and flip them over. I did not see. 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.640 I thought there was a range of activities. Yeah, that'd 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:45.280 be my guess. You want to take a break. We 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.880 already I mean that chariot race took up a lot 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:50.319 more time than I thought. This is gonna be like 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.920 a three hour episode. Uh, yeah, let's take a break 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:57.079 and we'll do what four more? Yes, didn't take another break? 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:23.400 Sounds good. Alright, we're back Chuck with another old job 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:29.559 that's not around anymore. This one's armorer, Yes, which is 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:32.800 hard to say. It really strains the back necks, the 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:35.280 back neck muscles. Yeah, I mean, there is a modern 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:39.680 job called an armorer, but we're talking about the dudes 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:42.080 in the Middle Ages who would build your body armor, 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:47.760 which was I mean extraordinarily skilled craft like you couldn't 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:50.040 go to school to learn how to be an armorer. 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:52.040 You basically had to be born the son of an 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:57.040 armorer because the skill was passed along from father to son, 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.600 and secrets of how to make these these suits of 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:06.040 armor were kept very closely secret by um by the 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:08.200 people who knew what they were doing, because they had 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:13.080 a lot of competition, and so as a result, historians 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:18.120 and I guess armor specialists of today still have questions 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:20.640 about how some of these guys made some of these 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:23.720 amazing suits of armor because they didn't leave any evidence 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.520 of exactly how they did it. Yeah. I mean the 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:30.320 process would start as just like a we are the 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:36.000 people that make suits, uh Taylor Taylor, like a tailor 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.160 might today. So you would lumber up, you would uh, 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:44.000 you would strip down to your linen's and they would 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:48.320 take your measurements and then make a replica of your body, 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:51.480 uh if they so had the time out of wood 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.600 or something. Because it would take a long time, Like 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:57.360 you couldn't if you wanted a quality suit of armor, 0:14:57.440 --> 0:14:59.400 you couldn't go in there and say turn it around 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:01.720 in a week, like sometimes it would take months and 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.120 even more than a year. Yeah, I saw years in 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:06.680 some cases. Yeah, because if you want the good stuff, 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.040 you gotta go. And these people made a lot of money. 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:11.720 They they were like a subset of the smithies, like 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.840 you said, like it was not something that everyone was 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:18.280 good at. So they would spend a lot of time 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:21.000 with wealthy people. They made a lot of money themselves, 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.560 and so they had kind of a much higher standing 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:27.400 as opposed to like a regular smithy might yeah, and 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.520 and the suits of armor that we see today, um, 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.680 the ones you think of usually like a British night 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:36.400 or something like that wearing it, those were made of 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:39.840 like high quality steel. But steal back then this is 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:44.160 like fairly fairly early after we really figured out how 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:48.280 to make steal reliably. And um, it was a real 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:51.200 bear to work with because you would have to you'd 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:53.280 hammer it and then you'd have to heat it up 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:55.240 again and hammer it some more, and it would cool 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:57.160 as you were hammering it and you have to heat 0:15:57.200 --> 0:15:59.520 it up again. So it was really tough to work with, 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:03.120 but it was pretty strong. Um. The thing is, because 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:07.720 steel was rare, it was also very expensive to work with. 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.120 And so the suits of armor we see today, like 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:13.240 in museums and things, usually come from the sixteenth century. 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:15.920 And even though they were making suits of armor similar 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.200 to that and as far back as like the fourteenth 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:22.280 and fifteenth centuries, you don't see those because they reused 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:24.600 that old steel from the old suits of armor into 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.600 the new ones. And then they finally ended in the 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:30.320 sixteenth century when they stopped making suits of armor. But 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.960 that's why you only see almost exclusively sixteenth century suits 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.320 of armor that makes sense. Also saw that, um they 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:41.640 tried to set up shop near the materials, so instead 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.920 of having the transport stuff long distances and and it 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.480 sounds like it was in pretty high demand if like 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.000 you know, let's say someone died in battle and then 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:52.960 they would say they wouldn't just leave that stuff out there. 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:56.480 Somebody would go and gather up all this stuff. UM. 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.280 So I think just living near the product or the 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:04.159 base materials was a big advantage if you were an armorer. Yeah, 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:08.399 and armors kept up their trade. I mean eventually the 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:14.320 the so muskets came along well. At first it made 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:17.320 armor even better. It like pushed the development of armor 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:22.160 plating along even further. But then it outpaced musket development, 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.439 outpaced armor development, and then there was no reason to 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:27.639 have um armor any longer because you could just shoot 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:30.600 right through it. But but up to that point, the 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.359 armor plating got better, but then people stopped wearing as 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:35.440 much of it, until you basically had a chess plate 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:38.560 in a backplate and you would see people battling still. 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:44.560 I think even uh Napoleon's troops wore chest and backplate 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:47.359 armor and in the American Civil War and that's it, 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:54.360 they were naked right, like, it's so cool, but the well, 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:56.560 no one more thing. In the American Civil War, there 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:00.760 were people who sold chess plates. Yeah, and I think 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.400 that was about as as late as it went, late 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:06.920 nineteenth early twentieth century, you could still find an army 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:09.879 here they're wearing a breastplate. Maybe. Yeah. I imagine that 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:14.879 even later on with the advent of muskets, uh, something 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:21.080 that could stop an arrow or or a sword, like, 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:23.400 you would probably still feel pretty good about wearing that. 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:26.199 It wasn't too heavy. One thing I saw that I 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.119 thought was pretty ridiculous was that one of the reasons 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:33.560 soldiers didn't didn't wear a more widespread in the Civil 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:36.520 War in America was one it was tough to to 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.720 lug around. They got heavy, so when you're on the march, 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:42.560 I don't really want to carry that. But then secondly, 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:45.520 like they would be chided as cowards by their by 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:49.199 their fellow soldiers, which is like, are you a coward 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:52.800 just for taking an extra step of protection and extra 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:55.520 measure of protection when you're out there on the battlefield. 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.520 I'm wondering if I'm missing something. I don't know. I mean, 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:01.720 maybe back then it was just getting that time where 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:06.080 they were like old Sally backplate over there, right, he 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:08.480 didn't want to take an arrow to the back. Or 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:10.560 if you were richie rich, because you could afford a 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:12.879 breastplate and everybody else couldn't. So they just kind of 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:16.679 peer pressured you into dying along with them. Maybe maybe 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:23.919 peer pressure you into dying pressure. It's pretty bad. You 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:26.479 don't want to succumb to that peer pressure. So in 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:28.800 this case, the armorer, and we didn't say in the 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:31.240 last one, the chariot racers went away with the fall 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:35.359 of the Roman Empire. This job armor went away basically 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:40.280 when when muskets became capable of piercing steel. Yeah, and 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.080 after that, like I said, it may help with the 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:48.399 odd arrow or knife thrust, but maybe a throwing star, 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:53.440 the famous throwing stars of the Civil War. Uh, shall 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:56.760 we move on? Yeah, man, moving along, We're gonna stick around. 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:58.760 In the Middle Ages, it just kind of head on 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:02.280 over to the court jester. Yeah. I think this is 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:08.119 one where there's a lot of misconceptions because while in 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:11.480 the Middle Ages there were court jesters who would dance 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:16.280 around with the colored cloths and the and the little 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.280 hat with the bells on it and stuff like that 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:23.120 that did occur, but from what I gathered, the general 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:28.600 court jester didn't really wear that that often. No. And 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:31.399 I think one of the other misconceptions too, is that 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:36.320 they were kind of lunkheads or dummies or just simpletons 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:38.800 who knows, however you want to put it, when actually 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:44.000 they were extraordinarily stu usually among the highest educated people 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:48.760 in in any given country, certainly in a court. Um. 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:54.919 And that they were less fools and more satirists. Yeah, alright, 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:56.800 so let's let's break this down. There were a few 0:20:56.800 --> 0:21:00.760 different types. The type you're talking about is the the 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:05.520 legit court jester who would generally perform at the behest 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:08.840 of the court. Uh. And those are the ones that 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:11.000 were sometimes some of the only people who could speak 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:15.400 ill of the king or queen as a satirist. Uh. 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:17.399 You know, but you still would run a risk, you know, 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:19.640 if you took it too far. Imagine there was more 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:22.000 than one court jester who found their their head on 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:24.280 a stake at some point, for sure. Actually, I think 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:27.560 the last one known to have lived, um Dicky Pierce, 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:30.160 who was the fool to the Earl of Earl of Suffolk, 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:34.040 fell to his death from a pulpit and they think 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:38.840 they The official line is that he slipped, but um, 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:42.280 somebody thinks that he may have actually been pushed by 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:46.000 somebody who didn't like his little shove his stick. Yeah. 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:48.800 So uh, it says in this one article, I found 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:51.320 that three types of fool emerged, and that one was 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:55.080 the official court jester. Uh. A lot of times they 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:58.719 would just wear normal clothes rather than that little outfit 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:01.520 that we all know is the court ester. But then 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:05.760 there were definitely noble families and wealthy people who would 0:22:05.760 --> 0:22:09.719 adopt men and women who had mental illness or some 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:12.439 sort of physical deformity, and they were a little more 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:15.720 They called them innocent fools, and they weren't paid. They 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:20.720 were just kept around, almost like amusing pets, like wild 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:24.920 Peter from the Feral episode the Fear of Feareral Children episode. Yeah, 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:26.919 and they would get like food and clothes and lodging 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:30.320 and stuff like that, which I think was saying quite 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:36.080 a bit, yeah, because that was that value, you know. Uh. 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:38.560 And then they said the third class was were people 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:42.440 of the members of the fool societies that were big 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:44.520 in France. And I think these were more of like 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:48.360 what we would consider now like a rin fair performing yea, 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:52.000 and they would definitely wear those outfits and really played up. 0:22:53.400 --> 0:22:58.200