the history of linen washing and ironing
Ever since a man discovered cloth and started dressing in it, he started looking after that cloth as well. The first drawings of people show a group gathering at a river and drag the cloth through the water to wash it.
The first humans realized that by hitting the cloth against rocks at river bank, laundering was easier and clothes cleaner. And, so the first washing machine was born.
Along with the appearance of soap initially made of ashes and animal grease, came the idea to use it for washing clothes as well as people. In order to save soap and reach a better cleaning effect at the same time, people would first rub the soap into the cloth and than tread on it in a vessel.
For very dirty clothes they even used warm water. Moreover, they noticed that by hand rubbing, no matter how hard it was, a better washing effect was achieved. So, hand washing became customary with a man 4500 years ago.
Ever since the time the washing method was discovered, up until the modern washing machines, whose powerful technology itself controls the laundering process, everything occurred like lightning. Treading in a vessel was replaced by beating the cloth by sticks or striking it against rocks and thus draining it. This method is still in use in the remote parts of the world.
Soon after the boards to rub the cloth against them were invented, and the correlation between a continuous tumbling the cloth and better washing effect turned into an epochal invention. The 17th century started with the first washing machine composed of a drum to put linen into and was manually turned around. This method remains the operational base of each washing machine and is preserved as a leading light till these days.
When manual spinning became too hard, the first motors invented were used to substitute human power and time. First such machines appeared by the end of 18th century. Since then everything went on rapidly.
The man slowly built into machines everything he needed. First of all burners (first on fire, then on gas) which heated the drum and water in it, then increased the drum depending on need and, as the motor developed, he installed those that worked faster.
This is exactly the washing machine as we know it today... only packed in a metal box with various programs that help us and set us free from sitting next to it as it operates. The method has remained the same: linen is still spinning and tumbling, thus being washed. The dirtier the linen the more space it needs inside the drum, plus more detergent and warmer water.
In line with the development of washing, with a minor delay, the ironing started developing as well. At the beginning, textile items would be put under a large weight to straighten. Soon, a wooden press appeared. It was as early as Roman period but something was missing... The first “real irons” were in fact stone plates that pressed laundry. The man soon realized that linen got much straighter if the plates were hot, so he started putting them into fire to heat them before straightening the linen. So, the first iron was invented. It was more than 2300 years ago.
As with washing machines, the things developed logically and rapidly. In 13th century, the iron received the form it has today. Its practicality, which presented the major problem, was developing over centuries.
The body of first irons was full. The heating was performed by putting it into fire or live coal and later when gas was in a wider use, by putting on the burners. The problem of warming the iron in this way was dirt that passed on cloth.
This is why the iron body became hollow and live coal or burning stones were put inside it. The gas led to putting the burner which heated the plate inside the iron, until the electricity was founded and used. Today’s irons liberate the man from splashing the cloth by producing and letting out the steam under pressure, while the plate heating is regulated by thermostat, depending on the type of cloth.
We could tell you a lot more about the genesis of washing and ironing; introduce the invention of a first drier and tumble drier; open a completely new chapter on invention of chemicals that help us wash. But it would be too much.
Our aim was to make you acquainted with the world of washing and ironing from another perspective and show you that a man looked after hygiene and appearance from the beginning, trying to afford the best at the easiest way.
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