Washing machine: the evolution of a great washing machine

“Two Feet in the Water,” a hieroglyphic reference to laundry

The first mentions of laundry are found in ancient Egyptian papyri. In their writing, the Egyptians used hieroglyphs, one of which denoted washing and was called “Two Feet in the Water”.

This name is not accidental: the Egyptians washed their laundry with their feet, and so they also rinsed it without bending it down. Perhaps that is why, judging by the surviving silhouettes on the bas-reliefs, the Egyptians were slender and statuesque.

In ancient Babylon, the washing process was already mechanized. The found rock carvings of that epoch show that the Babylonians had a prototype of a washing machine which was a big wooden wheel with paddles.

It was necessary to spin this wheel by hand to shovel wet laundry into a large vat. It was hard work, and most of the laundresses in Ancient Babylon were men.

Sailors and pirates washed in seawater

Either pirates or sailors learned to use the ship for laundry: clothes were attached with a rope and thrown overboard.

The sea water with the foam washed away the dirt well, and after a long voyage, already on land, the women rubbed the cloth on stones, adding sand as an abrasive material. However, the sand alone was not enough for washing well: one had to influence the laundry chemically in some way.

And the ancient people knew exactly how – in Italy archeologists have discovered particles of soap, in the creation of which the best “washing” substances of the time were used – fat and ash from animals sacrificed by pagans.

Views from a technology museum

The 19th and 20th centuries were the age of technological catch-up. Household appliances and washing machines in particular are the best proof of that.

One can, of course, listen with a smile to grandmothers’ memories of how they were girls. But there are real museums of technology in which history has left its eloquent traces. One such museum was originally created as a collection of washing machines from the early twentieth century.

An American collector with a famous last name, Lee Maxwell, spent years searching for and selecting unique specimens. He exhibited his rich collection, which already includes more than 650 items, in Eaton, Colorado, United States.

Curiously, almost all machines are kept in working condition and are ready at any moment to wash a basket of laundry or to remove a stain on not very old jeans. It’s true, it’s better not to. as the mechanisms and gears of these trophies were completely discovered – the concept of “safety” or “design” was practically non-existent at the time.

The museum’s founder likes to repeat the cautionary tale that one of the visitors showed him a big scar on her head from an early childhood.

Helping her mother in the household, the girl got carelessly near the washing machine and the rollers began to pull her hair inside the machine. It was only by chance that she was saved from serious danger…

So, to look into the depths of history, let us once again clarify what the washing process is? A housewife would answer that it was a chore and a daily chore. From a woman’s point of view, it’s just hands, powder and water, preferably hot. Is that not why the best minds of mankind fought over the invention of “devices for washing”??

Scientifically speaking, laundry is simply the transition of laundry from dirty to clean. It was only a matter of how to make the transition?

Who bent the washboard??

In Europe, men did not master the profession of a washerwoman, the more so that neither foot washing nor special mechanisms took root there.

The women of Europe bent their backs over troughs and used a ribbed washboard to wash, on which they skinned their hands bloody.

The women were helped by a man whose name is lost to the ages, but who guessed to roll up a washboard into a ring and make it rotate around the laundry.

However, the first invention of the washing machine is considered to be an ordinary washboard, it appeared in 1797. And that was the first step to the great miracle machine.

According to some reports, half a century later, in 1851, James King in the USA received a patent for a “spinning drum washing machine”, which looked much like a modern washing machine, but was operated by hand.

And from the point of view of the patent offices, the first “apparatus for washing clothes and linen” was a machine registered in 1855. It was patented by the American inventor Moore.

Its apparatus consisted of a wooden box on small wheels, from which a moving frame and an elaborate construction made largely of metal parts could be seen. A box was filled with laundry, and a special container was filled with wooden balls and a bit of detergent solution was added.

A special lever moved the frame vertically, and the balls rolled over the laundry in one or the other direction, imitating the friction of the hands. To tell the truth, it was not quite clear how the washing balls could be kept clean. Perhaps the mistress had to wash them by hand every now and then.

Whether it was so or not, we will never know. History has changed the direction of technical progress: the next generation of washing machines has radically changed.

The laundry was invented by a gold digger

Technological progress, as we have found out, was rapidly gaining momentum by the end of the nineteenth century. In 1877, the number of patents for “devices to simplify the washing” in the United States alone was more than two thousand!

True, not all inventions have received a “start in life. There were, for example, machines that could wash only one sweat-soaked shirt in one cycle. Such ideas “did not pass the competition.

As early as 1850, a machine appeared in California that could wash 12 shirts at once. It was invented by gold-diggers, who needed big washing almost every day!

The California miracle machine was in such demand that its inventor began to make money “retail” – on every wash, getting gold sand and even nuggets from miners. And the first Laundromat on the Klondike used the draft power of ten10 dumb mules.

This is how the first paid laundry appeared – “landramat”. This service has proven to be in high demand thanks to working bachelors gathered in densely populated communities. And even today, the “electoral base” of today’s laundries are longshoremen, sailors and, of course, gold prospectors.

Of course, the inventors could not limit themselves to facilitating laundry only. There were many related tasks, like spinning, drying and ironing. By the way, wringing water from the washed laundry was mechanized in 1860 with the help of hand rollers, which were an essential attribute of every washing machine for almost a hundred and fifty years. Even nowadays one can find them in the simplest “semi-automatic” machines.

Burns inside, washes outside

Up until the very beginning of the twentieth century, washing machines used only the pulling power of man or animal. The motor was a real breakthrough in laundry business.

Pioneers in this field were American and German farmers: they were in great need of large and fast washing, so as not to occupy unnecessary peasant women with heavy and unproductive work.

“The “pioneer” farmers had moved into the laundry industry from a related industry – agriculture, where power of the motor was in full use. So they adapted wide barrels for washing: inside there was a cross inside, which acted as a peculiar activator. And it was a real engine that rotated the cross wheel, through the drive belt and gears.

It was originally an internal combustion engine. But soon enough it was replaced by the electric motor, the “great-grandfather” of modern machines.

Until our days has remained a well-known museum exhibit – Thor, it is one of the very first washing machines with an electric motor. It was invented as early as 1907 by the Hurley Machine in Chicago.

This machine had a wooden drum that made eight circular motions in different directions. The drum was rotated by the electric motor crankshaft, which was connected to the drum by a special lever at the bottom of the machine.

But before modern washing machines, such a miracle-technique was still very far.

“Hera” was the first mass-produced washing machine

The first mass production of washing machines began in Europe in the very beginning of the twentieth century – in the German company MIELE&CIE, which previously produced milk separators and butter churns.

The original Miele oil churn was a wooden tub with several blades that were turned by hand. That’s when Karl Miele, the owner of the company, figured out how to improve the design of the oil churn and adapt it for laundry.

The first washing machine was called “Hera” – it was a simple oak barrel with an electric drive and an agitator. In 1901, the mass production of the oak washers began, which were unexpectedly very successful throughout Europe. In the history of technology it is considered that 1901 is the birth year of the modern washing machine.

The idea, as usual, was “borrowed” by competitors and soon enough established an independent mass production of washing machines made of wood.

There were also curious curiosities. When the first German machines came to pre-revolutionary America, American peasants bought them up at once: they turned out to be very good… butter churners. And village women continued to do the laundry… at the river.

Electric laundresses flooded the Old and New World

A new page in the history of washing machines was opened by another American – A. Fisher: He invented the “electric washing machine”. The inventor got his patent in 1911, and soon, with continuous improvements, the electric washer-dryers were being sold all over the world.

By the beginning of the twenties, more than a thousand companies in the USA alone were producing and selling washing machines. Some of these companies are still well known today.

For example, the Whirlpool Corporation was born at the beginning of the 20th century – at that time it was called the Upton Machine Co. Unlike other models, the very first models of machines which came down the line of this company, had safety features for the consumer.

Technological advances in “laundry appliances” went hand in hand with advances in design. “Monster” of the late nineteenth century with open iron turned into a nifty useful appliance and stylish accessory. Not only engineers but also an army of industrial designers became involved in the work on the “wonder machine”. The washing machine thanks to its rapid spread has radically changed the idea of convenience and household.

American polls show that since the mid-twentieth century, laundry has “come home”. Until then, machine washing had also been widely used, but in communal laundries where housewives turned in their laundry.

When a washing machine became accessible and compact, the “utopian dream” of American feminists came true: the woman turned from a service consumer into a product consumer, which in no small measure gave a new impetus to the development of industry.

Since the second quarter of the twentieth century, women’s employment patterns have also changed: in a decade, there are 400,000 fewer servants in America. If in 1925 there were 900 thousand washing machines in the USA with a price of about $150 , in 1934 their number reached one and a half million with an average price of $60 .

By the 1950s, fully automatic laundry has become commonplace again – the “washing machine” is no longer called a “miracle machine”. Since then, you can choose from a range of models in stores. They differed by the type of loading, functions availability of drying mode, number of programs , size and design…

Washing machines have rushed into the smart home

In case anyone doesn’t know, the process of laundry is to make the laundry clean. This requires dissolving and rinsing out dirt particles entangled in fabric fibers. To improve the process, hot water and soaking the laundry before washing was used.

Special detergents are used to keep dirt particles from re-settling. They contain surfactants surfactants . Surfactant molecules form an envelope around the particles that repels the dirt from the fabric. The washing machine mixes the detergent solution with the laundry, washing away the dirt. Recall the stages of the great journey:

The 1920s: enameled steel drums replaced wooden drums coated with copper

1930s: timers still mechanical electric pumps for draining water appear

1948 g. – Patented software module for washing machines using punched cards as a medium . The first automatic programmable washing machine was created in America

1950s: The option of spinning the laundry after the wash centrifuge appears

1952 g. – the release of the first automatic “washing machine” in the countries of the Old World

1979 g. – the advent of the automatic washing machine control system using a microprocessor

1990s: the release of machines with a control system Fuzzy Logic, which can achieve a large number of programs and washing modes

The 2000s – integrating the washing machine into a smart home system that controls all appliances. Internet Accessibility.

In fact, the development of washing machines is no slower than the development of cell phones. Why can’t we see it??

It’s just that we change cell phones much more often than washing machines. This means that when buying a new “washing machine” you need to be aware of the latest developments to make a competent and worthy choice.

There are many models. Where’s my one and only?

There are hundreds of models and dozens of brands to choose from. Modern washing machines are very diverse in types, built-in features and price.

Cheap, economical activator machines provide the least amount of wear and tear on the fabric and the best quality of washing. The mechanism of such a washing machine is a rotating disc with paddles. Today on sale are more often found activator washing machines, popular for everyday washing of towels, handkerchiefs, baby clothes..

The drum-type machines have a rotating drum, which both washes and spins the laundry. This kind of machine is automated and equipped with a different number depending on the price of programs.

When choosing a drum-type washing machine, one should pay attention to the number of rpm when spinning. Better if you have several speeds in the arsenal from 400 to 1000 rpm.

The drum of the machine can rotate both around the horizontal axis and around the vertical axis, but this is less common.

Machines with horizontal drum rotation consume less water and detergent. But when wringing, it is less stable, vibrates and bounces on the floor if the loaded laundry is scarce or unevenly distributed along the walls of the drum.

To reduce vibrations, the machine is made heavier, which affects its weight and price. Such washing machines are mainly used in Europe and America.

In machines with vertical drum rotation, the spin speed reaches 2800 rpm, which allows you to spin the laundry to dryness.

Despite higher water and detergent consumption, these machines can be considered economical because they take hot tap water and don’t waste electricity on heating. Such machines are very popular in Asian countries, where electricity is very expensive.

There are two more types of drum-type washing machines: top-loading and front-loading.

The former machines are more compact and narrow and the laundry is loaded into them through the top lid, which allows you to easily add and remove items during the wash.

In the second case, the laundry is loaded through the door on the front wall. Front-loading machines are more popular. However, it should be noted that the quality of washing is the same with both ways of loading the laundry.

Air-bubble washing machines provide boiling water at room temperature and use less energy than other types of machines.

Such a machine, once connected to hot and cold water, mixes the water itself until it reaches the desired temperature. Provides modes in cold water, and in boiling water.

During washing, powerful jets of water are amplified with the activator of air bubbles as in boiling , which are created by the air-bubble generator. Bubbles penetrate between fabric fibers and burst, knocking out even stale dirt. Machines of this type are also automated and have a quiet mode for overnight washing.

Still, the most in demand are drum-type washing machines, in which you can wash both delicate items and jackets, and blankets and pillows.

With proper care and diligence, the life of the machines can last up to 10-15 years, although who knows what kind of washing machine will be on sale tomorrow?