Horse-Draw Transport as a Means of Providing Healthy Sanitary and Epidemiological Conditions in the Cities of Russia at the Beginning of the XX Century

Abstract

Carriage trade in Russia occupied a very significant place in the lives of many people who worked on a cart either temporarily or on a permanent basis. Of great importance was also the type of

transport a person was engaged in – passenger transport, where there was a career growth from a simple man to a daredevil driver; or load-carrying transport, where special physical endurance was required both from the horse and the carriage driver. A special place among the cabbies was occupied by nightmen (or ‘zolotar’, derives from Russian word ‘zoloto’ – gold), who would later be called in Russian ‘assenizators’. Under this beautiful name, the excavation and export of human waste was cut as a valuable fertilizer, exported to the fields, so necessary to increase productivity - a kind of «gold». This type of carriage drivers had to have the same requirements as for load-carrying carriage drivers, and besides, life was very immune to all sorts of unpleasant odors, which was an indispensable companion of this type of cab. The profession of a zolotar was also distinguished by a special risk, since harmful gases could cause irreparable harm to the health of the driver. The city authorities specifically regulated the points of deployment of sewage carts (in the yards), methods of sealing, staining and tarnishing barrels and boxes for the removal of sewage. The time frame for the work of gold cab drivers was also subject to strict regulation – it was deep night and early morning, which made it possible to save residents of settlements from vision is not the purest, but at the same time very necessary work. The work of nighmen cost an order of magnitude higher than their colleagues, which, of course, was explained by the specific features of this type of carting and was justified, since not everyone was able to do such work.