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There's a whole class of these occupations that are in a sense foundational to modern society yet are going extinct. Scientific glassblowing is another that com

There's a whole class of these occupations that are in a sense foundational to modern society yet are going extinct. Scientific glassblowing is another that comes to mind: https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-caltech-glassblower-20160613-snap-story.html https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-caltech-glassb... I kind of wonder to what degree this is a failure of national planning vs a natural cycle of technical skills. Does anyone still mourn the plasterers and stonemasons that made so many decorative building flourishes before the modernists took over with their "clean lines" and "reduced labor costs"?

Fomite 8y ago
I read an article, I think on here, a few years ago talking about the reason brick buildings look so ugly so fast now is essentially that skilled bricklayers are no longer a thing.
- Spooky23 8y ago
  That’s also a brick thing. After WW2, bricks were needed in vast quantities for various public works, and the quantities of cheap brick shifted production to the south. That basically put the whole rest of the business out of business.
  - NeedMoreTea 8y ago
    Don't know about in the US, but here in the UK engineering brick mostly died out after WW2. Pre-war lots of commercial buildings and housing were built with engineering brick. Iron hard and usually with a shiny face that's more like china. They were mostly impervious to water - enough to also be used as damp proofing - and chemical ingress. Only really used to restore and for a few industrial applications now. Regular bricks can be damaged by frost, salt and pollutants surprisingly easily.
    - peterclary 8y ago
      Did a building conservation course a few years back which covered damp proof courses and engineering bricks, showing pictures of how people had had to allow insurance company-approved damp-proof “experts” to drill a cavity into the face of each engineering brick, inject some treatment, and then seal it off. Ugly, expensive, and totally unnecessary.
lotsofpulp 8y ago
Mourning doesn’t pay the bills, and obviously society doesn’t value these skills and occupations as much as they value other things. Not enough people want to pay the extra rent for a stonemason or plasterer and opt for the clean line look, so that’s what they get. In this article’s case, people don’t want to spend $10 or $20 a month to keep newspaper lines running.

Fomite 8y ago

I read an article, I think on here, a few years ago talking about the reason brick buildings look so ugly so fast now is essentially that skilled bricklayers are no longer a thing.

Spooky23 8y ago
That’s also a brick thing. After WW2, bricks were needed in vast quantities for various public works, and the quantities of cheap brick shifted production to the south. That basically put the whole rest of the business out of business.
- NeedMoreTea 8y ago
  Don't know about in the US, but here in the UK engineering brick mostly died out after WW2. Pre-war lots of commercial buildings and housing were built with engineering brick. Iron hard and usually with a shiny face that's more like china. They were mostly impervious to water - enough to also be used as damp proofing - and chemical ingress. Only really used to restore and for a few industrial applications now. Regular bricks can be damaged by frost, salt and pollutants surprisingly easily.
  - peterclary 8y ago
    Did a building conservation course a few years back which covered damp proof courses and engineering bricks, showing pictures of how people had had to allow insurance company-approved damp-proof “experts” to drill a cavity into the face of each engineering brick, inject some treatment, and then seal it off. Ugly, expensive, and totally unnecessary.

lotsofpulp 8y ago

Mourning doesn’t pay the bills, and obviously society doesn’t value these skills and occupations as much as they value other things. Not enough people want to pay the extra rent for a stonemason or plasterer and opt for the clean line look, so that’s what they get. In this article’s case, people don’t want to spend $10 or $20 a month to keep newspaper lines running.