I've been watching Tony Robinson's amazing series "The Worst Jobs In History." I just saw the part of the Victorian era episode about Oakum (here). This made me wonder about a few things:
- Was oakum manufactured in British workhouses during the Napoleonic wars?
- If so, how important were workhouses for the production of oakum during that time?
- During the Georgian period, how important were workhouses for the British navy?
I have no historical training, but I will be adding the results of my "research" below:
- A. It seems like things were very different before and after various poor laws that were passed some time after the Napoleonic wars, so it is probably dangerous for me to extrapolate from the episode about the Victorian period back into the Georgian period.
- B. (Maybe pertinent to question 1) There is mention of "Oakum Boys" in this report.
- C. (Maybe pertinent to question 1) It looks like prisoners made Oakum sometimes, based on this report from about 50 years after my question.
- D. Based on this, it looks like the number of people in workhouses and other forms of undesirable/backup work increased significantly in Birmingham during the Napoleonic wars (but more due to the bad economy rather than the needs of the state). This seems like a more general pattern that in the opinion of this writer was part of what led to the updated poor laws after the Napoleonic wars.
- E. This random person 60 years after my period of interest seems to think that a workhouse is a natural place to get oakum, but it seems like they might be talking about tar?
My Google searching hasn't turned up anything, so I'm hoping someone here will have some ideas. Where does the expression "crack (ing) on like smoke and oakum" come from? I know generally what it means, but can't figure out where the oakum comes into the equation. Is it just one of Jack's malapropisms? There seem to be references to it from documents older than O'Brian, but nothing to indicate where it comes from.
Oil from the Oakum is dripping out on joints packed like 4 months ago. Is there a solution to this? Currently we are going back and melting all the joints out and using white oakum.
This is in chicago so they have to be lead joints. No PVC.
Anyone have this problem before?
Back in January I had my old cast iron sewer pipe replaced. The company I went with opted to use cast iron for the replacement as well.
Soon after the job was completed, I noticed a black oily substance seeping out from the lead and oakum joints in the sewer pipe. I called them back out, and the plumber assured me that it was normal for these joints to do this.
He re-packed/caulked the joint for me about two months ago, but it's still seeping out.
Is this normal? Or is it going to keep seeping out until the joints fail? Is it time to call another plumber?
