Re:Jobs that no longer exist
by mtmail on Saturday October 15, 2016 @10:56AM
(#12714118)
In Germany we still have a couple of "Turmwächter" (turm = watchtower of a church, wächter = watcher) left. Their jobs used to be watching for enemies, fire and blow a horn to signal the time of day. Some have apartments in the watchtower. In my town the woman (http://www.spiegel.de/karriere/bizarre-berufe-tuermerin-auf-...) took the position as recently as two years ago, part time job and she has to go up the stairs every day. Between 21:00 and midnight every half an hour she blows a horn in all 4 directions. Her predecessor did the job for 70 years and reported 20 fires. German Wikipedia lists 10 in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, those are probably the last 10 remaining. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BCrmer
[ Parent
| on HN ]
> hose are probably the last 10 remaining.
Towers to watch for wildfires are still in use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_lookout_tower
That is the starting point of the game Firewatch, by the way:
This looks like a job that could be replaced fairly easily with pattern-recognition software connected to infrared sensors and a satellite uplink. If a potential wildfire is detected, the system could send a drone to the location to confirm.
True, though having a human posted in remote locations has additional benefits, like assisting folks who are lost / injured.
Sans the drone (at least as far as my knowledge on the matter goes ,which is not very far) they already do this and the maps are freely available: