The Magic of an Ordinary Machine

-The machine that cleans our everyday dirt

It is often agreed upon that the power of imagination travels faster than the speed of light.
However, imagination is only as good as the mind allows it to be. It is only with this gift that
civilization has given people the liberty to travel great distances in great comfort, be it in a car,
airplane, or even their comfortable couch at home! Not only that, this remarkable power to
imagine has enabled an environment where, literally, anything is possible. From tools that
produce magnificent cars on their own, to those that construct nano-scale robots. Two hundred
years ago, one would have easily passed for a fool to have imagined everyday tasks, such as,
cooking, travelling, collecting water, washing clothes etc. to be done by machines, someday.

One such “fool” was Hamilton E. Smith of Philadelphia. Except that he was a genius! He
provided the first solution to one of the most laborious, yet, humdrum facts of life that people
have never been able to do without – washing clothes. Smith, using his brilliant power of
imagination, invented the very first mechanical washing machine in 1858 and this invention has,
unquestionably, secured its place as one of the most revolutionary inventions of the 19th century.

A washing machine is more than just a convenient appliance; it has made our daily lives very
efficient and simple. As a result (and greatly owing to it) we often fail to realize the amount of
work required to clean laundry. Before the advent of the modern washing machine, cleaning
clothes required an entire day of the week spent in painstaking manual labor. Naturally, finding a
more efficient way to clean laundry became increasingly important. However, the invention of
the washing machine was not an overnight process; it took much time for washing machines to
reach the level of sophistication and complexity found in modern washing machines as we know
it today.

Stone Age

During earlier days, washing clothes was done by pounding or rubbing clothing against rocks by
a riverbank. According to Lee M. Maxwell, in his book titled “Save Womens Lives: History of
washing machines” he states “The first methods of washing surely did not involve a machine at
all. Instead various movements of hands or feet would be performed to flex, twist, pound or
scrub the materials being washed”, indicating the labor-intensiveness of washing clothes during
those times.

However, active imagination and the pursuit to minimize labor lead to modest developments in
the area of washing clothes. For example, cleaning clothes requires stroking and twisting to get
the soap through the fabric and expunge solids. As a result, in due time, this process led to the
development of the corrugated wash board. In ancient Rome, a person would whiten clothing by
rubbing it against a rock while letting soap – then made of animal fat – lay on it. In some parts of
Europe, it was customary to hang dirty clothing in the loft and wash them just twice a week
(Maxwell, 3).

Washing clothes usually began with heating water on a fire at one place and then carrying it to
another. The warm soapy water was considered precious and would be repeatedly reused, first to
wash the least soiled clothing and then to wash progressively dirtier clothing. As time went by,
all of these manual activities were inevitably replaced by machines. The earliest machines were
constructed using wood, although, those made from metal soon replaced them, as this allowed
the use of fire below the washtub to keep the water warm throughout the day. Post-washing
stages, such as removing soap from clothes, were still arduous, because originally, removing
soap and water from the clothing, after washing was done, was an entirely separate process. By
soaking wet clothes in clean water and repeatedly changing the water ensured soap was removed.
The wet clothing would then be rolled and twisted by hand to extract water.

Figure: Women washing clothes in early 1800s

This, quite obviously, was labor intensive and, in order to overcome the inherent hardships, the
wringer was developed. This device used two rollers under spring tension to squeeze water out of
clothing where each piece of clothing would be supplied inside the wringer separately. Then, the
clothes were hung on a string to dry under direct sunlight. Although the first wringers were hand-
operated, they were eventually included as a powered attachment above the washer tub. The
wringer would be swung over the wash tub so that extracted wash water would fall back into the
tub to be reused for the next wash load.
Figure 2: Women with a wringer Figure 3: Women hanging clothes

Renaissance

Eventually, and inevitably, many outstanding and talented inventors started working on
improving the basic design of mechanical washing machines to set people free from the intensely
laborious chore of washing clothes. One of those life savers was the very talented Hamilton E.
Smith from Philadelphia. He played a particularly vital role in the renaissance of the mechanical
washing machine.

Smith’s design of the mechanical washing machine consisted of revolving vessels containing the
water, clothes, and weighted reels or rollers. It had a combined effect of rolling and pounding the
clothes and had a heating apparatus that exposed the clothes to warm water. It was a hollow
cylindrical casing of wood or metal which was divided into two parts. The lower half rested on
suitable legs and the upper half was hinged to the lower half on one side; thus the two halves
were locked together in front of a latch. This machine was viewed by the housewives and maids
of the 19th century as a time, money and labor-saving contrivance that allowed them to complete
other household tasks while the machine, charitably, washed the clothes. All they needed to was
unlock the latch and pour water into the casing until the lower half was almost full. Then, the
water was heated in the coil, and passed through the upper end of the interior casing, while
cooler water at the bottom of the casing passed into the lower end of the coil. While the water
maintained this circulation, the contents of the casing reached the necessary temperature.
Thereafter, the mass of dirty clothes would be introduced and the machine would start cleaning
the clothes by rotating the reel using an ordinary handle. Before this contraption was invented,
women had to spend hours boiling water, hauling it back and forth, scrubbing, rinsing, wringing,
and hanging up their family's wash. After this invention, however, they do not even have to
worry about changing the water.

Hamilton’s genius did not stop here; he kept working on the project of improving his washing
machine for the betterment of mankind.

Figure 4: The Mechanical Washing Machine (Longitudinal Section)

In the diagram:

A: Hollow Cylinder

B: Suitable legs

C: Reel

Figure 5: Transverse Section

.

Contemporary Era:

In 1865 he improved his invention and successfully completed an arrangement of washing and
drying apparatuses. Not was this device capable of cleaning dirty clothes but would also dry
them! This new invention consisted of a brick or other furnace, drying chamber, an ascending
flue to receive the smoke of the furnace, chimney, a descending flue to recipe vapor, sliding
racks to receive articles to dry, an elevated tank to hold water, pipes, and a washing section. The
additional drying chamber provided greater economy of time, fuel, and labor than any other
household appliance had ever before.

In 1889, he added a bolt that had a particular benefit to the doors of cylinders which are used in
washing machines. When the door was closed, the bolt held on to it firmly so that there was no
risk of opening when the cylinder was rotating; also, when the door was opened, the bolt held it
back so that it did not reach the closing position automatically. This is a fantastic example of a
seemingly insignificant design improvement that resulted in tremendous operational
enhancement.

Figure 6: The Washing and Drying Machine

Washing machines have, arguably, contributed more to the emancipation of today’s women than
any other household appliance. According to Linda Eggerss, a spokeswoman for Maytag, “In 93
percent of American families today, the female handles laundry chores with only about a third of
those getting help from a husband or child. Analogically speaking, the washing machine can be
considered as a knight in shining armor, rescuing women of this century from the foe of hard
labor. Moreover Patrick Graham mentions in his article, “The machines may not be the
equivalent of diamond earrings or fancy dinners on Mother's Day, but the automatic washing
machine-- one that washes, rinses and extracts water from clothes in one simple process-- is the
appliance many mothers appreciate the most.” Many women believe that introduction of washing
machines has encouraged many men to take part in household responsibilities more. They view
this invention as an equalizing force in terms of gender relations. It also considered that the
washing machine does not only clean clothes but also provides women with opportunity to
express proper femininity, which bounds the notion of gender equality by making women better
career oriented. Ultimately, all these small advances have brought the world to this wonderful
modern era where more women’s involvement is not limited only to household chores, but also
in every conceivable aspect of life.

The following poem is a striking reminder of how much the advent of the mechanical washing
machine has improved women’s lives.

“Wash on Monday,
Iron on Tuesday,
Mend on Wednesday,
Churn on Thursday,
Clean on Friday,
Bake on Saturday,
Rest on Sunday.”

It reflects how the lives of women used to be without the contemporary household appliances.
Being part of the modern era, it is very hard to imagine life without washing machines. It is
difficult for most of us to comprehend how people used to do all this, apparently, never-ending
hard work by hand. Today, the mechanical washing machine has become an advanced electrical
tool that has become an important appliance in every household. This did not take place
overnight; rather, it took a lot of hard work and dedication to reach the status quo, thanks to
many great minds that contributed to the improvement of the mechanical washing machine, like
Hamilton E. Smith, the forerunner of this great revolution.
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