Why Being A Victorian Baker Was A Death Sentence
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In the wide pantheon of tough jobs, your friendly neighborhood baker might not be the first thing that comes to mind. But pre-industrialization, bakers had one of the most strenuous, back breaking jobs you can imagine, which broke their bodies down aggressively. All this was exacerbated by the dreaded “Baker’s Lung,” a disease brought on by breathing in flour all day long. Today we’re going to talk about what is arguably one of the worst jobs of all time.
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LINKS LINKS LINKS
https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/health-safety-and-welfare-work
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/The_case_of_the_journeymen_bakers_-_being_a_lecture_on_the_%27evils_of_nightwork_and_long_hours_of_labour%2C%27_delivered_July_6%2C_1848_%28IA_b22337246%29.pdf
https://www.amsterdamumc.org/en/research/institutes/amsterdam-institute-for-immunology-and-infectious-diseases/news/bakers-eczema-a-work-related-hazard.htm
https://www.jiaci.org/issues/vol20issue7/1.pdf
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3125175/
https://www.journal-irioh.ru/jour/article/view/2984?locale=en_US
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34671999/
https://bshm.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/thom-v2-102-113.pdf
http://www.bphs.net/HistoryOfKeyBusinesses/Bakery/index.htm
https://dn720001.ca.archive.org/0/items/b22416365/b22416365.pdf
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Bread
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/The_case_of_the_journeymen_bakers_-_being_a_lecture_on_the_%27evils_of_nightwork_and_long_hours_of_labour%2C%27_delivered_July_6%2C_1848_%28IA_b22337246%29.pdf
https://www.tastingtable.com/1080592/the-dangerous-ingredient-victorian-bakers-sometimes-added-to-bread/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5467726/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4685600/
https://www.hse.gov.uk/asthma/bakers.htm
https://www.amsterdamumc.org/en/research/institutes/amsterdam-institute-for-immunology-and-infectious-diseases/news/bakers-eczema-a-work-related-hazard.htm
https://www.academia.edu/12250367/The_Biopolitics_of_Baking_I_Bodies_and_Environments_in_London_Bakeries
https://www.victorianlondon.org/professions/bakers.htm
https://www.tastingtable.com/1080592/the-dangerous-ingredient-victorian-bakers-sometimes-added-to-bread/
https://archive.org/stream/foodlondonasket00doddgoog/foodlondonasket00doddgoog_djvu.txt
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28622147
https://www.victorianlondon.org/professions/bakers.htm
https://researchingfoodhistory.blogspot.com/2017/11/bakers-life-in-london-and.html
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 – Intro
1:00 – The Industrial Nightmare
2:21 – Life of a Baker
5:04 – Death of a Baker
8:07 – Baker’s Lung
12:09 – Other Occupational Illnesses
14:39 – Sponsor – Brilliant
@himuraakame4850
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
any work in victorian era is literally insane
@FaiithoVisual
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
4 guys and 1 oven. (search google in the 2000s)
@nettlesandsnakes9138
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
0:28 had to wake up at three in the morning.
@spiritas5372
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
As a Knife maker, I love respirators!
@DanaMichelleCarter
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
Baker here, I'm opening my own Bakery-Cafe and I can attest that yes, baking UTTERLY DESTROYS your body even now, so I can only imagine what it was like before the industrial sized electric mixers…oof
@ProfessorDarkAcademia
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
“Song of a Baker” by the Small Faces makes antiquated bakery life seem so peaceful. eeee NOT
@Hemoclysm
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
8:40 god my boogers were extremely gross i couldnt imagine sleeping in the bakery
@Hemoclysm
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
I worked in an older style bakery and can confirm the ovens are still just as hot. The days were not 20 hours but 10 to 16 hour days depending on demand and the boys did drink just as much on the down time.
@ChristopherKnight-b4p
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
I work on the masonry trade, silicosis is a nightmare i face daily
I feel super sorry for these old bakers, but the issue is far from solved!
@Brushesandblueprints
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
As a former Comcast customer service agent, I beg to disagree!
@AeolianSkinner
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
A life span shorter than half your audience? This video has 270K views.
@ilyaklimenko5666
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
What was the name of the girl with song "Bread"? It's must be the soundtrack of this video.
@rosaleeta
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
Great video – this feels like a proper history lesson; how normal people used to live. Rather than just school's history lessons, which only focuses on events and famous people
@Horseyh
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
Could you genuinely stop using AI slop
@advanced_beginner
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
If I had to only eat bread, I would be dead in a day unless it was gluten and yeast free but it seems gluten wasn't the worst ingredient.
@thomfrostted
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
6:08 That 6,000 calorie/day claim is absolutely bogus.😂
@brettbannister5560
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
Such a cool video, my god man
@alferry
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
Just wanted to note one other modern example that is just now beginning to be studied – nail techs. They spend all day breathing in nail filings, acrylic powders and harsh chemicals, often in very poorly ventilated salons with minimal protection. Usually wearing either no PPE at all or a mask that isn't actually adequate to filter out anything (and certainly not eye protection, even though they work in close quarters with chemicals that absolutely should not go near your eyes). Wouldn't be surprised if in 20-30 years lung cancer becomes more of an issue amongst long-term nail salon workers.
@teethgrinder83
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
I used to work in a small bakers here in Scotland, 12hrs 6pm-6am with just 3 of us, very small and cramped and soooo hot and that was bad enough although I enjoyed it (I had to give it up because of epilepsy), I really can't imagine how it was back then
Edit-we also sold to other shops haha
@fallentofate
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
I in fact do not remember the Dunkin Donuts guy….
@Silvercrypto-xk4zy
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
Another extremely dangerous job during that period was being a pharmacist, or druggist as it was called then. They were responsible for literally making the drug compounds from the base chemicals (well before the modern safety measures we have now. My 2nd great grandfather was involuntarily committed for chemical induced violent insanity in the early 1900s to about 1912 caused from exposure to chemicals as he was a druggist and he died shortly after
@doktormcnasty
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
Yeah but I heard from someone in the Epstein class that bread which no one got sick & died making just doesn't taste as good for some reason. 🤷♂
@ponyote
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
You could have just left off the last four words and it would have still been accurate.
@nigeldepledge3790
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
Joe, you captioned a picture of Queen Elizabeth II as "Queen Elizabeth". No.
Her regnal number is a part of her name and title. Formally, she was crowned "Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of this Realm and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith." Queen Elizabeth II is already a shortened form of her title.
But "Queen Elizabeth" refers only to Elizabeth Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, after she became Queen in the mid-16th century.
@jaythered420
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
0:33 I feel like I’m being attacked… I’m too short to handle this! 😢
@arthurau67
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
3:03 thank you for this bit, it was necessary for me to retain the information
@sillysayosillies
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
feeling very brave eating my breakfast while watching this rn.
@farinshore8900
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
Joe, victorian bread was much heavier that the crap at mcdo! They were working with heavier, less processed grains that produced a more substantive loaf. The nutritive value of the grains were also different. Bread now could not serve as a staple – it lacks the nutrition.
@igostupidfast3
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
It took me YEARS to figure out why I would always sneezed with a full mouth of cereal. VERY fine dust comes out of the box when poured.
@nosauceyesrough3576
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
Of fucking course I have this video in my AirPods while I’m sifting the flour at work
@blockhousebay2
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
There's no way the average working man in Victorian times was eating 6000 calories a day. Infact a quick AI search confirms it was around 3-4000. Similar to today. Poor people had much less.
@Awesomeninja64
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
My Great-Great grandfather was a baker in Bavaria in the late 19th century. He died shortly after his daughter, my Great grandmother, was born.
@SanguineCynic
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
2:47 "DoughDash" if you will
@justinofboulder
May 26, 2026 at 4:55 pm
I used to know a redheaded bread baker… He was a ginger bread man
Comments are closed.