🧑 Milkman

The milkman is a historical job: a person who took milk round to people's homes every morning. In Britain, milkmen appeared around 1860. That was when railways began bringing fresh milk quickly from villages into the cities.

At first, milk was carried in churns on horse-drawn carts. The milkman scooped milk out with a measuring cup and poured it into the housewife's jug. By 1880, milk in Britain was already delivered in bottles. Then came battery-powered electric carts — milk floats. By 1967, Britain had the largest fleet of electric vehicles in the world. Besides milk, the milkman often brought butter, cream, cheese and eggs.

In the second half of the 20th century, the job almost disappeared. People bought home fridges, handy cartons appeared, and milk began to be bought at the shop. In the United States in 1954, home delivery made up 54% of the milk sold. By 2005, only about 0.4% of buyers had milk delivered. But the image of the milkman and bottles on the doorstep at dawn lives on in books and films. And in 2020, during the pandemic, there was demand for milkmen again.