These are knife grinders in France, circa 1902. They worked lying down to save their backs and had dogs sit on their legs for warmth.

23 comments

  1. [Context](https://www.dozorme-claude.fr/en/a-knife-story)

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    FIRST THERE WAS THE DUROLLE, AND THEN CAME THE KNIFE…

    It is claimed that the origin of the cutlery industry goes way back to the Middle Ages. Legend has it that it was the crusaders from the Auvergne who brought metalworking secrets back with them from their travels in the East. It is more likely, however, that the Thiers cutlery industry goes back to the 15th century as witnessed by the thirty or so knife makers referenced in the tax registers of the times. Within a century, this number had grown to two hundred.

    Thiers was not, however, an obvious candidate for developing this specialisation. There is no local iron mining or steel production, nor any sandstone quarries to provide the material for the millstones. While the closeness of Saint Etienne (an arms manufacturing town) certainly helped develop the knife-making industry in Thiers, it was the forceful River Durolle that would provide the hydraulic energy required to power the mills and knife-making workshops, coupled with the formidable obduracy and determination of a population living in a region of steep, rugged terrain. By the 17th century, Thiers was exporting its knives from ports in Bordeaux and Nantes, via Spain and Italy, down to the Levant. It was in the 19th century, however, that the industry would experience phenomenal growth with 25,000 people working in the cutlery industry by 1855.

    Local memory still remembers the “yellow stomach”, the hundred of grinders who sharpened blades lying on their stomachs above the millstones, a position specific to the French cutlery, with a small dog lying on their legs to keep them warm

    HUNDREDS OF « YELLOW BELLIES » IN THE CREUX DE L’ENFER

    Built along the banks of the Durolle, in what is now known as the « Vallée des Usines » (Factory Valley), otherwise known as the Creux de l’Enfer, the workshops took full advantage of the river’s hydraulic power to produce and supply massive numbers of knives to wholesaler ironmongers in France and Navarre through an effective work plan known as « parcellisation ». This involved breaking the manufacturing process down into several separate steps, each one of which was « parcelled out » to a different workshop. This often involved employees working at home governed by a specific collective labour agreement. Local memory still remembers the « yellow bellies », the hundreds of grinders who sharpened blades lying on their stomachs above the millstones, a position specific to the French cutlery industry, with a small dog lying on their legs to keep them warm.

  6. This wasn’t a new phenomenon either. Earlier examples of it:

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    [https://i.pinimg.com/736x/fd/35/9c/fd359c0d65d227624ea52a03a477ecff–medieval-manuscript-british-library.jpg](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/fd/35/9c/fd359c0d65d227624ea52a03a477ecff–medieval-manuscript-british-library.jpg)

    [https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0226/6487/2010/files/grinders_wheels_655edb1d-331f-414e-8ba7-0a4815056387.png?v=1635695046](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0226/6487/2010/files/grinders_wheels_655edb1d-331f-414e-8ba7-0a4815056387.png?v=1635695046)

  18. Imagine doing this nowdays:

    “How DARE you trying to be more efficient! You will stand and get backpain how i told you to and like everyone else at this shitty underpaid job!”

  19. This has really intrigued me. I’m wondering if working like that was partly a safety measure, so a dropped knife had no way of falling onto any part of the worker’s body. If not, and the prone position was entirely for comfort, does anyone know whether any other trades worked/work like this?

  20. How low we’ve sunk. These guys didn’t even complain about working indoors in the freezing cold, 21st Century we have people whining about the brand of coffee that’s in the staff kitchen.

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