Invention

Part 13 - Washing Machines

People were using soap around 2800 BCE in Babylon, Mesopotamia (Iraq). Later, soap was made by mixing vegetable or animal oil or fat with an alkaline substance like lye (typically sodium hydroxide (NaOH)) traditionally obtained by leaching wood ashes. Commonly, coconut, olive or palm oils were used as well as tallow rendered from beef fat. Laundering by hand required soaking, beating, scrubbing and rinsing dirty fabric and, before indoor plumbing, the maids, washerwoman or housewife had to carry all the water needed from a pump, well, or spring. An 1886 estimate, suggested some women in the United States fetched water eight to ten times every day.

Water for the laundry was heated on a fire and poured into a tub. The warm soapy water was precious so it was reused, first to wash the least soiled clothing, then to wash progressively dirtier laundry. Then the soap was rinsed out with clear water and the soaking wet fabric rolled and twisted by hand to extract the water and the fabric hung on lines outside to dry by natural evaporation and sunlight, or hung on indoor clothes lines or clothes horses, typically in front of an open fire. Finally, it was ironed smooth and stored until used again. The laundry often required a long day's work especially if there were coal miners in the family. In 2010, almost 5 billion of the world's population were still hand-washing their clothes.

The first English patent for a washing machine was issued in 1691 and a drawing of an early washing machine appeared in the January 1752 issue of the British Gentleman's Magazine. In 1767, Jacob Christian Schäffer designed a washing machine in Germany and in 1782, Henry Sidgier acquired a British patent for a rotating drum washer.

In the 1790s Edward Beetham sold "patent washing mills" in England. One of the first developments was the enclosed containers or basins with grooves or paddles to help with the scrubbing and rubbing of the clothes. The user needed a stick to press and rotate the clothes along the textured sides of the container to agitating the clothes to remove dirt and mud. However, this crude agitation was more effective than hand-washing.

Washing machine technology advanced with a hand-cranked, rotating drum and metal drums in place of the traditional wooden containers. This allowed the drum to turn above an open fire to heat the water for more effective washing. A mangle, a pair of hand cranked, rubber coated rollers could be adjusted to squeeze water from the newly washed fabric. The first United States Patent was granted to Nathaniel Briggs 1797. In 1862, a patented "compound rotary washing machine, with rollers for wringing or mangling" by Richard Lansdale of  Manchester, Britian, was shown at the 1862 London Exhibition.

Canadian John E. Turnbull patented a "Clothes Washer With Wringer Rolls," in 1843. In the 1850's, Nicholas Bennett of New York state, invented a "wash mill" that was sold by David Parker as the "Improved Washing Machine".

Margaret Colvin invented the Triumph Rotary Washer, which was exhibited in the Women's Pavilion at the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia. Electric washing machines were advertised as early as 1904 but the inventor is unknown.US electric washing machine sales reached 913,000 units in 1928 while the first laundromat may have opened in Texas in 1934 although the term "laundromat" appeared in newspapers as early as 1884. Patrons used coin-in-the-slot facilities to rent washing machines.

Washer design improved during the 1930s. The mechanism was enclosed in a cabinet and the electrical and mechanical parts were safer. Spin dryers were introduced to replace the dangerous power operated mangle/wringers of the day.

By 1940, 60% of the 25 million wired homes in the United States had an electric washing machine.

Bendix Home Appliances sold the first automatic washing machine in 1937.It included many of today's basic features, but it lacked a drum suspension and had to be anchored to the floor to prevent it "walking". Because of the components required, the machine was also relatively expensive.

Many of the early automatic machines had coin-in-the-slot facilities and were installed in the basement laundry rooms of apartment houses.

General Electric introduced its first top loading automatic model in 1947 with many of the features in modern machines while the Hoover Company used cartridges to program different wash cycles.

Early automatic washing machines used electromechanical timers to sequence the washing and extraction process. These consisted of a series of cams on a common shaft driven by a small electric motor via a reduction gearbox. At the appropriate time in the wash cycle, each cam actuated a switch to engage or disengage a particular part of the machinery (for example, the drain pump motor). On the early electromechanical timers, the motor ran at a constant speed throughout the wash cycle. However, by the 1950s demand for greater flexibility in the wash cycle led to more sophisticated electrical timers. These newer timers enabled greater variation in functions such as the wash time. Fully electronic timers did not become widespread for many decades.

A hand-cranked clothes dryer was created in 1800 by M. Pochon from France. Henry W. Altorfer invented what is probably the first electric clothes dryer in 1937.   J. Ross Moore, an inventor from North Dakota, sold an automatic clothes dryer in 1938. While, Industrial designer Brooks Stevens developed the first electric dryer with a glass window in the 1940s.Most dryers consist of a rotating drum called a "tumbler" through which heated air is circulated to evaporate the moisture, while the tumbler is rotated to maintain air space between the articles. Drying at a minimum of 60 °C (140 °F) heat for thirty minutes kills many parasites including house dust mites, bedbugs and scabies mites and their eggs; a bit more than ten minutes kills ticks. Simply washing drowns dust mites and exposure to direct sunlight for three hours kills their eggs.