Before the days of washing machines, people got dirt out of their
clothes by pounding them on rocks and washing the dirt away in streams.
Sand was used as an abrasive to free the dirt. Soap was discovered at
Rome's Sapo Hill where ashes containing the fat of sacrificial animals
was found to have good cleaning powers. The earliest washing "machine"
- the scrub board - was invented in 1797.
In 1874 William Blackstone, a Bluffton, Indiana merchant and
manufacturer of corn planters, built a birthday present for his wife.
It was a machine which removed and washed away dirt from clothes.
It consisted of a wooden tub in which there was a flat piece of wood
containing six small wooden pegs. The inner mechanism looked something
like a small milking stool. It was moved back and forth by means of a
handle and an arrangement of gears. Dirty clothes were snagged on the
wooden pegs and swished about in hot soapy water. Mr. Blackstone began
to build and sell his washers for $2.50 each. Five years later he moved
his company to Jamestown, New York where it is located today and where
it still produces washing machines.
Competitors moved in quickly - there have been more than 200 washing
machine manufacturers in the U.S. in the past century. Competition has
kept keep prices down. Many early washing machines cost less than $10.
A wringer, invented in 1861, was added to the washer. Metal tubs
replaced wooden types around 1900. Drive belts made possible use of
steam or gasoline engines in the early 1900s and electric motor power
for the first time in 1906. Maytag's first washer, built in 1907, was
operated by a rotary handle and a flywheel underneath.
In 1922 The Maytag Company introduced a system of forcing water through
the clothes by means of an agitator rather than dragging the clothes
through the water. This system is most commonly used now.
Even as early as 1875 there had been more than 2,000 patents issued for
various washing devices. Not every idea worked, of course. One company
built a machine designed to wash only one item at a time.
What may have been the first "laundromat" was opened in 1851 by a gold
miner and a carpenter in California. Their 12-shirt machine was powered
by 10 donkeys.
Earliest washers were hand powered by means of a wheel, pump handle or
similar device. One, was driven by twisted ropes which powered the
washer by "unwinding" somewhat like the use of a rubber band to power
model airplanes. One washer contained rollers which were pushed back
and forth by hand to squeeze out dirt. Several featured "stomping"
devices and one - called a "Locamotive" was moved rapidly back and forth
on a track washing the clothes by slamming them against the walls of the
tub.
Only two systems survive today. They are the agitator system and a
cylinder system in which the clothes are washed by tumbling inside a
moving tub.
In the mid 1930s, a subsidiary of the Bendix Aviation Corporation began
work on one of the most significant of all washing machine improvements.
A device invented by John W. Chamberlain washed, rinsed, and extracted
water from clothes in a single operation.
Introduction in 1947 of the first top-loading automatic washer was
another milestone. The 1900 Corporation, a predecessor of Whirlpool,
was the first to build this type.
In 1953 sales of automatic washers passed those of the wringer type for
the first time. Many developments followed: cycles were developed for
new fabrics and push buttons replaced knob.
Read more about the history of:
Source:
•Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers
