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You think your job is bad?
The instructions for extracting saltpeter in Pryotechnica (a medieval manuscript) describe how to extract saltpeter.
You mix pee, manure and wood ashes in a barrel. Heat it well over a fire and stir. After it's been cooked long enough, you transfer it into another barrel that has a perforated bottom. You pour hot water into the top and collect the liquid that comes out the bottom. That gets boiled to to produce the crude saltpeter cyrstals.
But that's not the sucky part of the job. It's this last bit. You are to pour water into the perforated barrel until the runoff no longer tastes bitter *to your apprentice*. Yes, the manuscript specifies that the apprentice is the one who gets to taste the runoff...
Other not fun jobs back then. Harem guard. . And male soprano singer in a choir (both have the same minor surgical procedure required)
On yeah, it wasn't until a little over 100 years ago that the Church outlawed the making of castrati,
You mix pee, manure and wood ashes in a barrel. Heat it well over a fire and stir. After it's been cooked long enough, you transfer it into another barrel that has a perforated bottom. You pour hot water into the top and collect the liquid that comes out the bottom. That gets boiled to to produce the crude saltpeter cyrstals.
But that's not the sucky part of the job. It's this last bit. You are to pour water into the perforated barrel until the runoff no longer tastes bitter *to your apprentice*. Yes, the manuscript specifies that the apprentice is the one who gets to taste the runoff...
Other not fun jobs back then. Harem guard. . And male soprano singer in a choir (both have the same minor surgical procedure required)
On yeah, it wasn't until a little over 100 years ago that the Church outlawed the making of castrati,