Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Knocker uppers: Waking up the workers in industrial Britain (2016)

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 90 posts

Re: Knocker uppers: Waking up the workers in industrial Britain (2016)

#31

Post by beAbU »

keiferski wrote: post #16

The philosopher of technology Lewis Mumford argued that the origin of modern industrial machines goes back further than the Industrial Revolution and Renaissance, all the way back to the regimented and time-based lives of medieval monks. Knocker uppers seem like a direct obvious example of this phenomenon of humans as proto machines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Mumford https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.psu.…

A common surname in South Africa is Klopper, literally Knocker. Probably similar origin.

Re: Knocker uppers: Waking up the workers in industrial Britain (2016)

#32

Post by hallway_monitor »

lsaferite wrote: post #17
ahoka wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it fascinating that I don’t understand a sentence of this.

In this case 'fag' seems to follow the definition: an English public-school boy who acts as servant to an older schoolmate https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fag

It’s listed on that page as a synonym for toil or drudgery. So basically a chore is a fag. It seems like the definition you mention is likely the origin of today’s gay pejorative.

Re: Knocker uppers: Waking up the workers in industrial Britain (2016)

#33

Post by hallway_monitor »

Xophmeister wrote: post #2

I’m glad the subtitle was included. “Knocker upper” has a very different meaning to me.

Etymology is very interesting. It makes me wonder if there’s any relation to today’s slang for being pregnant, knocked up.

Re: Knocker uppers: Waking up the workers in industrial Britain (2016)

#34

Post by pessimizer »

hallway_monitor wrote: post #32
lsaferite wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case 'fag' seems to follow the definition: an English public-school boy who acts as servant to an older schoolmate https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fag

It’s listed on that page as a synonym for toil or drudgery. So basically a chore is a fag. It seems like the definition you mention is likely the origin of today’s gay pejorative.

It's the same definition. A servant is a person who toils. This is a discussion about English public schools.

Re: Knocker uppers: Waking up the workers in industrial Britain (2016)

#35

Post by bloopernova »

keiferski wrote: post #16

The philosopher of technology Lewis Mumford argued that the origin of modern industrial machines goes back further than the Industrial Revolution and Renaissance, all the way back to the regimented and time-based lives of medieval monks. Knocker uppers seem like a direct obvious example of this phenomenon of humans as proto machines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Mumford https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.psu.…

Reading about world war 2 has given me a new appreciation for just how manual everything was.

It's amazing that the Allies managed 2 major amphibious landings in June 1944: Normandy was one, Saipan the other. Saipan was about a thousand miles from the nearest Allied forward base, and >3000 miles from Pearl Harbor! All that with slide rules, typewriters, mimeographs, and filing cabinets.

Re: Knocker uppers: Waking up the workers in industrial Britain (2016)

#36

Post by wiradikusuma »

"the knocker-up soon found out that while he knocked up one who paid him, he knocked up several on each side who did not" -- I thought it was the employer who paid the knockers!

I guess it makes sense, otherwise you can pretend you don't hear it and excuse yourself from working that day.

Re: Knocker uppers: Waking up the workers in industrial Britain (2016)

#37

Post by 082349872349872 »

bloopernova wrote: post #35
keiferski wrote: post #16

The philosopher of technology Lewis Mumford argued that the origin of modern industrial machines goes back further than the Industrial Revolution and Renaissance, all the way back to the regimented and time-based lives of medieval monks. Knocker uppers seem like a direct obvious example of this phenomenon of humans as proto machines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Mumford https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.psu.…

Reading about world war 2 has given me a new appreciation for just how manual everything was. It's amazing that the Allies managed 2 major amphibious landings in June 1944: Normandy was one, Saipan the other. Saipan was about a thousand miles from the nearest Allied forward base, and >3000 miles from Pearl Harbor! All that with slide rules, typewriters, mimeographs, and filing cabinets.

don't forget punched cards:

https://pattonhq.com/ibm.html

https://www.ww2online.org/image/large-replica-punch-cards-bu...

Re: Knocker uppers: Waking up the workers in industrial Britain (2016)

#38

Post by cen4 »

bloopernova wrote: post #35
keiferski wrote: post #16

The philosopher of technology Lewis Mumford argued that the origin of modern industrial machines goes back further than the Industrial Revolution and Renaissance, all the way back to the regimented and time-based lives of medieval monks. Knocker uppers seem like a direct obvious example of this phenomenon of humans as proto machines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Mumford https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.psu.…

Reading about world war 2 has given me a new appreciation for just how manual everything was. It's amazing that the Allies managed 2 major amphibious landings in June 1944: Normandy was one, Saipan the other. Saipan was about a thousand miles from the nearest Allied forward base, and >3000 miles from Pearl Harbor! All that with slide rules, typewriters, mimeographs, and filing cabinets.

Sometimes its a good thing that tools slow you down. People have more time to think about what they can achieve. I vaguely remember Planning for Normandy taking 2 years or something, just cause of all the resources they had to mobilize from around the world.

Contrast with today's wars, were all the real time tech in the world is producing lot of half baked outcomes.

Re: Knocker uppers: Waking up the workers in industrial Britain (2016)

#39

Post by morkalork »

madaxe_again wrote: post #3

A hangover from this, mid-late 90’s boarding school in the U.K., one of the fags (household duties for first and second years - one-on-one fagging no longer officially existed, but did) was knocking up. Just comprised walking the corridors and banging on everyone’s doors at 7:00-7:15 (seniors later, head of house last), as the bells weren’t audible in much of the house. It was a doss fag - by mutual agreement we came…

Coming from a north american public school, I can't imagine one's family paying large sums of money to send you to a boarding school... just to be some older boy's servant. Get your own ass up, or don't, not my problem. I am by no means a rabid libertarian but that kind of environment would drive me to it.

Re: Knocker uppers: Waking up the workers in industrial Britain (2016)

#40

Post by aivisol »

markx2 wrote: post #27

Time related: "Elizabeth Ruth Naomi Belville (5 March 1854 – 7 December 1943), also known as the Greenwich Time Lady, was a businesswoman from London. She, her mother Maria Elizabeth, and her father John Henry, sold people the time. This was done by setting Belville's watch to Greenwich Mean Time, as shown by the Greenwich clock, each day and then "selling" people the time by letting them look at the watch and adjust…

NTP server.
Post reply on HN