Table of contents:

Zolotar is a profession indispensable for the city
Zolotar is a profession indispensable for the city
Anonim

In our time of scientific and economic achievements, new professions appear, while others disappear or are transformed as useless. An example of this is the goldsmith. This profession existed in Russia until the end of the nineteenth century. It got its name due to the fact that the sewage poured onto the streets was jokingly called night "gold". To date, this work is carried out by vacuum cleaners. Goldsmith is not the most pleasant profession.

Duties of the goldsmith

The duties of the goldsmith included:

  • liquidation and removal of sewer masses in special barrels;
  • cleaning of dirt and sewage from latrines;
  • maintaining the necessary sanitary standards in the narrow streets of cities, where often, due to the lack of sewerage, slop and dirt poured directly from the windows into the street.
goldsmith profession
goldsmith profession

Zolotar is a useful and necessary profession in Russia. Due to the peculiarities of working with sewage, being a goldsmith was considered shameful. But these people often helped to avoid epidemics in big cities. And of course, modern sewers are now much easier to work with. Indeed, over the past one hundred and fifty years, sewerage and new technological methods for cleaning waste and sewage have appeared in all cities.

BCurrently, vacuum cleaners work with so-called sludge pumps, thanks to which they can quickly pump out liquid waste and take it to a disposal site. Unlike the barrel-loading carts used by the goldsmiths, the sludge-sucking machines don't leak odors and don't cause inconvenience to residents.

But, unfortunately, both the goldfish in the past and the sewers are currently susceptible to various infectious diseases. Most often they suffer from parasites that can disguise themselves as a variety of diseases - from asthma to dysbacteriosis or gastritis.

goldsmith profession in Russia
goldsmith profession in Russia

Goldsmith's tools

In order for the goldsmith to work, he had to have the following tools:

  • Cart.
  • The barrel in which the sewage was transported. It had to be waterproof and tightly closed.
  • The bucket used by the goldsmith to clean cesspools.

Besides human sewage, the city streets were full of horse manure. And therefore the goldsmith is a highly paid and very difficult profession. Otherwise, urban residents would have to take out the waste outside the city to specially designated places. Namely, thanks to the gold miners, the inhabitants avoided contact with sewage.

Zolotar is a profession in culture

The great Soviet writer Mayakovsky mentions the goldsmith in one of his poems precisely at the time when this profession evolved into a sewer operator.

In addition, this profession is mentioned in the popular book "The Last Watch",which was written by Sergey Lukyanenko. In it, the cunning old man Afandi pretends that he does not know any Other Geser and deliberately confuses him with the goldsmith from Binkent, who has long since died. So he decided to play a joke on the main character Anton Gorodetsky. True, after only a couple of minutes it turns out that old Afandi knows Geser and all his affairs.

goldsmith profession photo
goldsmith profession photo

Zolotar - a profession (the photo is in the article) is difficult, but deserves respect. Without these hardworking people, life in the city would be impossible. In addition, thanks to the gold miners, the city had clean water obtained from rivers and lakes. Otherwise, at the first rain, uncleaned sewage would spoil the fresh water.

Recommended: