A brief history of the washing machine
Created | Updated Feb 4, 2008
Modern History
Clothing has been cleaned in many ways over the centuries, from beating animal skins with sticks to drivenout dust and possibly in the vain hope of squishing some of the nasty blood-sucking invertebrates that made life hell.
As clothing styles changed and fabric became available, so a trudge to the local river and soaking and beating on a flat stone was the order of the day. The next advance was to use hot water and a wooden tub, similar to the bottom of a barrel with handles. One advantage of this was that washing could be done out of the elements, and saved the long trek to the water source as well as getting the clothing cleaner by loosening the dirt.
The next major change came with the invention of soap which, being a detergent <A337006>, actually began removing substances like grease and stains, which had previously been removed, with limited effect, by hot water. Its use was heightened after the abolition of soap tax in 1853 to the extent that by 1891 over a stone (8kg) was being used by 1891. Along with this was the increased use of bleach, starch and 'blue bag' <footnote - french ultramarine and baking soda as a whitener>. Further advancements came through fairly rapidly. One of these was the 'dolly' which was a wooden pole ending in a round disc holding five to seven rounded legs protruding from it. This was used to pummel the fabric in the dolly tub<footnote - a full barrel to give maximum agitation>. There where variations of this, some of a complicated copper construction consisting of a domed, pierced piece of copper, sealed at the base with a concave piece of copper. Another increasingly popular appliance was the washboard, which enabled agitation to give a better clean. These were made of a wooden framework with a galvanised aluminium or glass ridged surface, often used in conjunction with a mangle which, consistinhg of wooden rollers and a handle, enabled excess water to be removed from the garments speeding up the drying process, which was done, as it always had been, by hanging. Where previously it would be on a suitable bush, now it was done on a washing line outside or a clothes horse indoors. This was an extending wooden framework with dowel rods running across to take the clothes and was used when weather was inclement. Monday was traditionally wash day and would literally take all day!!!. For this reason the poor of the parish would often 'take in washing'. Once dried and aired they would be ironed using a flat iron. These were of varying designs. The most basic type was a solid iron base, flat at the rear tapering to a point at the front. This would be placed on a heat source and when hot, applied to the garments to flatten the fabric. It was very time consuming, as they didn't retain their heat well. This led to many variations including hollow irons that held lit wood, coal or charcoal, box-irons that held pieces of red hot iron, gas-irons that were filled directly from the town-gas supply by a rubber tube, lit and heated like a gas-burner.
The next big advance was an electric tub. There were many styles, from the powered rotating drum on a fixed spindle that, by rotating, agitated the clothing... crude but effective. A man called Fred L. Maytag, an agricultural machine maker took this idea in 1911, changing the drum for a large metal tub and turning it through 90˚so it could be filled from the top, adding a mangle attached on a swing arm, and putting the heating element in the base. <footnote - This became the famous Model 41, and changed the direction of the Maytag business forever>. It still entailed manually filling with water, but saved heating kettles to provide hot water. Manual agitation was still necessary. This continued for some period through the turn of the 20th Century. Most of the companies that went into this business were involved in some previous industry, typically bicycle manufacture (Miele, Bosch) and Electro-plating (Siemens, Smeg). Others leapt on the bandwagon. Most of these companies changed track during the second war, and became involved in the war effort, on both sides! this led to an increase in information, invention and technology which would prove useful when the companies were demobbed!
The Twin Tub
A new and truly labour-saving device was invented around the early 1950's- the twin tub. This was a truly revolutionary, excuse the pun, in that it removed the need of manual agitation, and also had a spinner attached so the mangle was also unneccesary. No more mangled fingers! It consisted of a round tub that held the water, which was added by means of a hose from the cold water tap, which was surrounded by a heating element. In the centre was a conical, mechanical agitator with three ridged veins running from top to bottom. It had a temperature control which allowed fine control of water temperature, a real boon with the advent of synthetics, and also allowed delicates to no longer need to be washed by hand. On the other side of the machine was the spinner. This consisted of a long perforated cylinder which, by using centrifugal force, would spin the water from the clothes, which had been removed from the washing tub using wooden tongs. The fabric was prevented from spinning out by covering with a heavy rubber perforated disc, and was probably the first machine to have a clothing monster that ate socks. As the clothing was not manipulated by hand it meant that the use of soda and bleach was safer to the operator. It reached it's heyday in the 1960's as money became more readily available and leisure time was at a premium, not forgetting the baby-boom!!! Around the same time the pharmaceutical industry was developing detergents, producing many types such as biological powders, powders with zeolites, or whitening agents, powders with anti-surfactants, etc. This industry would expand drastically over the years.
And so to the modern day!
The automatic washing machine.
Clothing has been cleaned in many ways over the centuries, from beating animal skins with sticks to drivenout dust and possibly in the vain hope of squishing some of the nasty blood-sucking invertebrates that made life hell.
As clothing styles changed and fabric became available, so a trudge to the local river and soaking and beating on a flat stone was the order of the day. The next advance was to use hot water and a wooden tub, similar to the bottom of a barrel with handles. One advantage of this was that washing could be done out of the elements, and saved the long trek to the water source as well as getting the clothing cleaner by loosening the dirt.
The next major change came with the invention of soap which, being a detergent <A337006>, actually began removing substances like grease and stains, which had previously been removed, with limited effect, by hot water. Its use was heightened after the abolition of soap tax in 1853 to the extent that by 1891 over a stone (8kg) was being used by 1891. Along with this was the increased use of bleach, starch and 'blue bag' <footnote - french ultramarine and baking soda as a whitener>. Further advancements came through fairly rapidly. One of these was the 'dolly' which was a wooden pole ending in a round disc holding five to seven rounded legs protruding from it. This was used to pummel the fabric in the dolly tub<footnote - a full barrel to give maximum agitation>. There where variations of this, some of a complicated copper construction consisting of a domed, pierced piece of copper, sealed at the base with a concave piece of copper. Another increasingly popular appliance was the washboard, which enabled agitation to give a better clean. These were made of a wooden framework with a galvanised aluminium or glass ridged surface, often used in conjunction with a mangle which, consistinhg of wooden rollers and a handle, enabled excess water to be removed from the garments speeding up the drying process, which was done, as it always had been, by hanging. Where previously it would be on a suitable bush, now it was done on a washing line outside or a clothes horse indoors. This was an extending wooden framework with dowel rods running across to take the clothes and was used when weather was inclement. Monday was traditionally wash day and would literally take all day!!!. For this reason the poor of the parish would often 'take in washing'. Once dried and aired they would be ironed using a flat iron. These were of varying designs. The most basic type was a solid iron base, flat at the rear tapering to a point at the front. This would be placed on a heat source and when hot, applied to the garments to flatten the fabric. It was very time consuming, as they didn't retain their heat well. This led to many variations including hollow irons that held lit wood, coal or charcoal, box-irons that held pieces of red hot iron, gas-irons that were filled directly from the town-gas supply by a rubber tube, lit and heated like a gas-burner.
The next big advance was an electric tub. There were many styles, from the powered rotating drum on a fixed spindle that, by rotating, agitated the clothing... crude but effective. A man called Fred L. Maytag, an agricultural machine maker took this idea in 1911, changing the drum for a large metal tub and turning it through 90˚so it could be filled from the top, adding a mangle attached on a swing arm, and putting the heating element in the base. <footnote - This became the famous Model 41, and changed the direction of the Maytag business forever>. It still entailed manually filling with water, but saved heating kettles to provide hot water. Manual agitation was still necessary. This continued for some period through the turn of the 20th Century. Most of the companies that went into this business were involved in some previous industry, typically bicycle manufacture (Miele, Bosch) and Electro-plating (Siemens, Smeg). Others leapt on the bandwagon. Most of these companies changed track during the second war, and became involved in the war effort, on both sides! this led to an increase in information, invention and technology which would prove useful when the companies were demobbed!
The Twin Tub
A new and truly labour-saving device was invented around the early 1950's- the twin tub. This was a truly revolutionary, excuse the pun, in that it removed the need of manual agitation, and also had a spinner attached so the mangle was also unneccesary. No more mangled fingers! It consisted of a round tub that held the water, which was added by means of a hose from the cold water tap, which was surrounded by a heating element. In the centre was a conical, mechanical agitator with three ridged veins running from top to bottom. It had a temperature control which allowed fine control of water temperature, a real boon with the advent of synthetics, and also allowed delicates to no longer need to be washed by hand. On the other side of the machine was the spinner. This consisted of a long perforated cylinder which, by using centrifugal force, would spin the water from the clothes, which had been removed from the washing tub using wooden tongs. The fabric was prevented from spinning out by covering with a heavy rubber perforated disc, and was probably the first machine to have a clothing monster that ate socks. As the clothing was not manipulated by hand it meant that the use of soda and bleach was safer to the operator. It reached it's heyday in the 1960's as money became more readily available and leisure time was at a premium, not forgetting the baby-boom!!! Around the same time the pharmaceutical industry was developing detergents, producing many types such as biological powders, powders with zeolites, or whitening agents, powders with anti-surfactants, etc. This industry would expand drastically over the years.
And so to the modern day!
The automatic washing machine.
