Washing Machines

In order to drive dirt out of clothes, it is not only water that is needed to remove the soluble contamination but also a built in mechanical action to force particles of dirt out of the fibers.  The latter was originally, and still is in areas of the world, provided by pounding the clothes against rocks or by rubbing them with sand and then washing the clothing in streams and rivers.

Since this is a very labour intensive part of what was a housewife’s job, it was an ideal task to automate. The first development from the rocks and sand was the scrubbing board, first introduced in 1797.  However, this did not significantly save time or effort, and the first real washing machine precursor was that of American James King, who patented a drum washing machine in 1851 and was further developed by Hamilton Smith’s rotary machine.

However, until the availability of electricity, washing clothes was always going to be labour intensive. That was achieved by the Hurley Machine Company of Chicago in 1908 with the ‘Mighty Thor’.  This was a drum machine using an electric motor. Whirlpool produced their first washing machine in 1911 under the name of the Upton Machine Co., and it also incorporated a built in wringer that allowed the clothes to be hung up to dry after wringing straight from the machine.  Things moved rapidly from then, and the same company introduced the first top-loading machine in 1947, with the first automatic machine appearing in Europe in 1951.

Electric drying machines appeared around 1915, and those in use today offer electronic sensing of when the clothes are dried, and can also be incorporated into the washing machine so that after loading the dirty clothes the machine can be left unattended until the clothes are cleaned and dried.

Vacuum Cleaners

It was British engineer Cecil Booth that first had the idea of sucking up dirt from a floor using vacuum technology, and his first machine was patented in 1901.  This was not electric, but petrol driven and drawn by a horse.  It would be parked outside the house, and long hoses fed into the house through the windows. Hardly useful by today’s standards but revolutionary and very effective nevertheless.

American David Kenney developed a similar machine that would be installed in a cellar and connected to a network of built in pipes that led into each room in the house.  The cleaning unit would then be attached to the pipe in the room to be cleaned.  James Murray Spangler was next in 1907 when he invented the portable electric machine that had both a bag and attachments. One of the first customer’s cousins was one William H. Hoover and history was in the making.

The first Hoover was manufactured in the UK in 1919, and was fitted with what was known as a ‘beater bar’:  hence “it beats as it sweeps as it cleans”. From then on it was a simple matter of improving the dust collection methods, the filtration and the suction power.  The basic vacuum technology has not changed.  Even the Dyson works off the same general principle, but was the first to us the cyclone dust collection system which had been known in other areas of industry prior to that.

A Buyer’s Guide to Domestic Appliances.

It is important, as with all other appliances, to make a list of what you must have in your household appliance. For example do you have large areas of carpet to clean, or are your rooms filled with furniture with few large expanses of open floor?  In the former case an upright vacuum cleaner would be better for you, and in the latter a cylinder with long hose attachments for getting round and under chairs and tables.

The same is true of washing machines:  have you a large family providing large washes, or are there only the two of you where you would be wasting water and money with a large machine?  Do you need an economy option, or a small load option? Do you want an integrated tumble dryer or a separate one if you need a dryer at all?

What type of iron do you want?  Electronic with pre-loaded programs or just a simple electrical steam iron? That choice will depend upon the type of clothes you wear, and whether or not you have a lot of silk or fine fabrics together with cotton and linen to iron.

Here is some advice to help you make the right decision.

1.  Decide beforehand what you really need, what you definitely don’t want, and what options would be good to have but not essential. When shopping stick to your essential list, and then get as many of the ‘good to haves’ if your budget can cover them after securing the essentials. Do not go for options if they also involve any of those features you do not want.