Back when I was a kid I dropped out of high school at 16. The only job I could find was carrying hod for a plaster. Even to this day I can hardly imagine how tough that job was. Loading 80-100 lbs. of "mud" (plaster or stucco) on a carrier (the hod), putting it on your shoulder and getting it to the guys with the trowels. It wasn't too bad if you didn't have to climb a ladder for 2-3 floors. And in between loads you had to run the mixer. More 60 lb. bags of stuff to lift.  It was that job that changed my life and caused me to go back to school. Now, two University graduate degrees later, can look back and realize that job was probably one of the best things in life that ever happened to me. At least I knew what I didn't want to do for a living......Doug

While living in Tehran, Iran in the early sixties I was completely floored watching how the construction workers passed bricks up from story to story via a human chain.

The guy on the ground would grab four bricks between both hands, then toss them together up to a fellow on the second floor. That guy would catch them and if needed would in turn toss them up to someone on the third floor!

I actually saw one place where they were building a ten story building! Needless to say it was a very dangerous occupation. I'm sure that some of the bricks got missed and fell back to the ground. Yikes!

Why no one thought to use a wicker basket and rope to haul the bricks up in one shot is anyone's guess!

And now there's SAM....  

 

Brick masons are few and far between these days.  I am not surprised to see the development of a machine to replace them.  Brick masonry is hard, dirty work, but I have often heard it pays very well.