People's History of Science

In the excerpt of A People's History of Science, the author repeatedly mentioned some of the lower-class workers who would do grunt work for scientists: sailors who gathered data for research about astronomy and navigational sciences, and miners who assisted with Gilbert's investigations regarding magnets. It's easy to overlook these workers when considering the scientists who analyzed the data, but recent discussions about who deserves credit in science has left me somewhat torn about whether these workers were just as important. Without them, the work may not have gotten done, but without the scientists, the data may never have been anaylzed​ or even asked for. I'm still inclined to think that the scientist is more important, but scientific history could have been much different without workers ready to carry out these tasks.