Rag-and-bone man
Traditionally, this was a task performed on foot, with the scavenged materials (which included rags, bones and various metals to be scrapped) kept in a small bag slung over the shoulder.
Usually he has a stick in his hand, and this is armed with a spike or hook, for the purpose of more easily turning over the heaps of ashes or dirt that are thrown out of the houses, and discovering whether they contain anything that is saleable at the rag-and-bottle or marine-store shop.These bone-grubbers, as they were sometimes known, would typically spend nine or ten hours per day searching the streets of London for anything of value, before returning to their lodgings to sort whatever they had found.
Metal was more valuable; an 1836 edition of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal describes how "street-grubber[s]" could be seen scraping away the dirt between the paving stones of non-macadamised roads, searching for horseshoe nails.
[10] Although they usually started work well before dawn, they were not immune to the public's ire; in 1872, several rag-and-bone men in Westminster caused complaint when they emptied the contents of two dust trucks to search for rags, bones and paper, blocking people's path.
Law's nephews later came up with a similar process involving felt or hard-spun woollen cloth, the product in this case being called ‘mungo’.
Although it was solely a job for the lowest of the working classes, ragpicking was considered an honest occupation, more on the level of street sweeper than of a beggar.
For his handcart's load, which comprised rags, furs, shoes, scrap car parts, a settee and other furniture, Bibby made about £2.
[22] A 1965 newspaper report estimated that in London, only a "few hundred" rag-and-bone men remained, possibly because of competition from more specialised trades, such as corporation dustmen, and pressure from property developers to build on rag merchants' premises.
"[24] The BBC's popular 1960s-70s television comedy Steptoe and Son helped to maintain the rag-and-bone man's status in British folklore, but by the 1980s they were all-but gone.
However, in more recent years, rising scrap metal prices have prompted their return, although most drive vans rather than horses and carts, and they announce their presence by megaphone, causing some members of the public to complain about noise pollution.
[25][26] Ragpicking is still widespread in developing countries, such as in Mumbai, India, where it offers the poorest in society around the rubbish and recycling areas a chance to earn a hand-to-mouth supply of money.
