The Washing Machine

Today I did laundry. Lots of it. Loads of it. Literally.

As a general rule, I hate to do laundry. It’s tedious, time consuming, and it never stops. I’m the type of person who likes to get the job done. Completely done. With laundry, you’re never done. Even when you think you’re done, you’re not. Other reasons I dislike laundry: I can never get stains out. I frequently bleach things by accident. It’s hard to find a detergent that has a smell I can stand. And when I do find one I like, Wal-Mart stops carrying it so I have to pick another one. Then of course there are things like what happened yesterday when Jacob drank half a cup of detergent.

Here’s another thing that I particularly dislike. Tags that say: 

Hand Wash Only.

That got me thinking about how much I actually appreciate my washing machine. I’m so glad that there are only a few Hand-Wash-Only clothes in my house. If I had to wash everything by hand, laundry would be a full-time job. 8 hours a day. 5 days a week. Exhausting!

This is from an article I read online:

History of the Washing Machine:

"In the early days, without running water, gas, or electricity even the most simplified hand-laundry used staggering amounts of time and labor. One wash, one boiling and one rinse used about fifty gallons of water—or four hundred pounds—which had to be moved from pump or well or faucet to stove and tub, in buckets and wash boilers that might weigh as much as forty or fifty pounds." YIKES!

"Rubbing, wringing, and lifting water-laden clothes and linens, including large articles like sheets, tablecloths, and men’s heavy work clothes, wearied women’s arms and wrists and exposed them to caustic substances." 

"They lugged weighty tubs and baskets full of wet laundry outside, picked up an article, hung it on the line, and returned to take it all down; they ironed by heating several irons on the stove and alternating them as they cooled, never straying far from the hot stove."

Milestone in the History of Washing Machines:

1797		Scrub boards.
1851 1861 1874 1858		First, hand-powered, washing machine with a drum, invented by James King. First clothes wringer added to the washing machine. William Blackstone built his first hand-driven wooden washing machine. The company he founded still produces and sells washing machines to this day, out of their New York headquarters. First rotary washing machine, invented by Hamilton Smith.
Early 1900s 1907 1922 1908 1911 1930s 1947		Metal wash tubs replace wood tubs. Maytag Corporation began manufacturing a wooden-tub washing machine with a flywheel, still manually operated with a rotary handle. Maytag Corporation introduces the agitator system for moving the water around in the drum, rather than dragging the fabrics around in the water. First electric-powered washing machine is invented by Alva J. Fisher. Whirlpool Corporation, then called the Upton Machine Co. is founded in St. Joseph, Michigan and starts producing electric motor-driven wringer washers. John W. Chamberlain of Bendix Aviation Corporation invents a machine that can wash, rinse, and extract water from clothes in a single operation. The first top-loading automatic washing machines are introduced by the forerunner of the Whirlpool Corporation.
1951 1950		The first automatic washing machines are made in Europe. The first computer-controlled automatic washing machines appear. Many technological advances follow. Among hundreds of systems tested, only two washing systems survive until this day: the agitator system and the tumbling system. Wash cycles and products are developed for new fabrics and a greater range of wash conditions.

So I have a new appreciation for my washing machine. It really is incredible. And it's been in the making for 150+ years. I wholeheartedly say "Thank You" to all those wonderful people who made it possible for me to push a button and forget about the wash, rinse, and spin of it all.