Occupations

[stormswift]

Hi, just wondering if anyone has any idea about a couple of occupations I've come across in the 1901 census.
The transcription that accompanies the entry lists the occupation as a ' Brass Filer '. I'm inclined to think it says ' Brass Coiler '.
The job is noted for 2 of the family's children. Whilst another child's occupation is ' Scale Do ' the do or ditto being underneath the filer or coiler .
Would anyone know what Brass and Scale filers or coilers are or were ?

Steve

[linell]

I would imagine that anyone Filing Brass would be semi skilled, and employed in one of England's many factories. This is a good site for Old Occupations:-

http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/

HTH Linell.

[SRD]

I'm not sure why children in particular would be doing the jobs, I suspect they were small, repetitive jobs that didn't need much supervision. A scale filer would presumably be removing lime scale build up on such things as boilers. Maybe they were in an early version of the recycling trade.
I wonder if there was another reason for making sure that everyone in the family had an occupation, possibly to do with being in gainful employment so that they would qualify for Poor Law reliefs.