Ancient peoples cleaned their clothes by pounding them on rocks or rubbing them with abrasive sands; and washing

the dirt away in local streams. Evidence of ancient washing soap was found at Sapo Hill in Rome, where the ashes containing the fat of sacrificial animals was used as a soap. Scrub Board The earliest washing "machine" was the scrub board invented in 1797. American, James King patented the first washing machine to use a drum in 1851, the drum made King's machine resemble a modern machine, however it was still hand powered. Rotary Washing Machine In 1858, Hamilton Smith patented the rotary washing machine. In 1874, William Blackstone of Indiana built a birthday present for his wife. It was a machine which removed and washed away dirt from clothes. The first washing machines designed for convenient use in the home. Mighty Thor The Thor was the first electric-powered washing machine. Introduced in 1908 by the Hurley Machine Company of Chicago, Illinois, the Thor washing machine was invented Alva J. Fisher. The Thor was a drum type washng machine with a galvanized tub and an electric motor. A patent was issued on August 9th 1910.

Facts About a Few Famous Washing Machine Companies The Maytag Corporation began in 1893 when F.L. Maytag began manufacturing farm implements in Newton, Iowa. Business was slow in winter, so to add to his line of products he introduced a wooden-tub washing machine in 1907. Maytag soon devoted himself full-time to the washing machine business. The Whirlpool Corporation started in 1911 as the Upton Machine Co., founded in St. Joseph, Michigan, to produce electric motor-driven wringer washers. The origins of the Schulthess Group goes back over 150 years. In 1909, they began production of their first washing machines. In 1949, the Schulthess Group backed the invention of punched card control for washing machines. In 1951, production of Europe's first automatic washing machines started. In 1978, the first microchip-controlled automatic washing machines were produced In the early 1800s, clothes dryers were first being invented in England and France. One common kind of early clothes dryer was the ventilator, the first one known to be built was made by a Frenchman named Pochon. The ventilator was a barrelshaped metal drum with holes in it. It was turned by hand over a fire. One early American patent for a clothes dryer was granted to George T. Sampson on June 7, 1892. Sampson's dryer used the heat from a stove to dry clothes and is an example of a ventilator type machine Electrical Clothes Dryers Electrical clothes dryers appeared around 1915. Modern clothes dryers include such features as electronic sensors that detect when clothes are dry.

Milestones in the History of Washing Machines and Dryers

1797 Scrub boards.

Early 1800s First clothes dryers; hand-powered.

1851

First, hand-powered, washing machine with a drum, invented by James King.

1861

First clothes wringer added to the washing machine.

1874

William Blackstone built his first hand-driven wooden washing machine. The company he founded still produces and sells washing machines to this day, out of their New York headquarters.

1858

First rotary washing machine, invented by Hamilton Smith.

Early 1900s Wooden wash tubs are replaced by metal tubs.

1907

Maytag Corporation began manufacturing a wooden-tub washing machine with a flywheel, still manually operated with a rotary handle.

1922

Maytag Corporation introduces the agitator system for moving the water around in the drum, rather than dragging the fabrics around in the water.

1908

First electric-powered washing machine is invented by Alva J. Fisher.

1911

Whirlpool Corporation, then called the Upton Machine Co. is founded in St. Joseph, Michigan and starts producing electric motor-driven wringer washers.

1915

The first electrical clothes dryers appear.

1930s

John W. Chamberlain of Bendix Aviation Corporation invents a machine that can wash, rinse, and extract water from clothes in a single operation.

1947

The first top-loading automatic washing machines are introduced by the forerunner of the Whirlpool Corporation.

1951

The first automatic washing machines are made in Europe. The first computercontrolled automatic washing machines appear.

1950

Many technological advances follow. Among hundreds of systems tested, only two washing systems survive until this day: the agitator system and the tumbling system. Wash cycles and products are developed for new fabrics and a greater range of wash conditions.

http://gadgets.softpedia.com/news/History-of-the-Washing-Machine-031-01.html

WASHING MACHINE
For centuries, people on sea voyages washed their clothes by placing the dirty laundry in a strong cloth bag, and tossing it overboard, letting the ship drag the bag for hours. The principle was sound: forcing water through clothes to remove dirt. Catharine Beecher, an early advocate of bringing order and dignity to housework, called laundry "the American housekeepers hardest problem". Women from all classes tried to find ways to get relief from doing laundry. Some hired washerwomen and others used commercial laundries. Eventually mechanical aids lightened the load. "In the early days, without running water, gas, or electricity even the most simplified hand-laundry used staggering amounts of time and labor. One wash, one boiling and one rinse used about fifty gallons of wateror four hundred poundswhich had to be moved from pump or well or faucet to stove and tub, in buckets and wash boilers that might weigh as much as forty or fifty pounds. Rubbing, wringing, and lifting water-laden clothes and linens, including large articles like sheets, tablecloths, and mens heavy work clothes, wearied womens arms and wrists and exposed them to caustic substances. They lugged weighty tubs and baskets full of wet laundry outside, picked up an article, hung it on the line, and returned to take it all down; they ironed by heating several irons on the stove and alternating them as they cooled, never straying far from the hot stove." The First Washing Machines The earliest manual washing machines imitated the motion of the human hand on the washboard, by using a lever to move one curved surface over another and rubbing clothes between two ribbed surfaces. This type of washer was first patented in the United States in 1846 and survived as late as 1927 in the Montgomery Ward catalogue. The first electric clothes washers, in which a motor rotated the tub, were introduced into America about 1900. The motor was not protected beneath the machine and water often dripped into it causing short-circuits and jolting shocks. By 1911, it was possible to buy oscillating, cylinder, domestic washing machines with sheet metal tubs mounted on angle-iron frames with perforated metal or wooden slat cylinders inside. Manufacturing Challenges From a technological perspective, washing machine manufacturers faced a number of challenges. These included discovering a method of transferring power from the motor to the mechanism, finding a suitable motor with sufficient initial starting torque, and ensuring that the operator did not get an electrical shock during operation. In the transference of power, some washing machines were chain driven, some belt driven and others used shafts and gears.

To overcome the initial resistance in starting a washing machine, a fractional horsepower motor which would not burn out or overheat during the start-up period was used. This was usually a 1/8 or horsepower motor, manufactured out-of-house by Westinghouse or Robbins and Myers. To prevent electric shocks, the stator and rotor of the machine were enclosed in a housing equipped with a fan to prevent overheating. Improvements From the customer satisfaction perspective, a machine that would wash without shredding the clothes needed to be developed. This meant that if the original scrubbing machines were used, the machine had to be operated at different speeds for different textiles. To overcome the problem, washing machines that sloshed water through the clothing by agitation were developed. Either the tub moved or a baffle placed inside the tub moved. Early washing machines had a heavy, dirty, cast-iron mechanism mounted on the inside of the tub lid. The introduction of a metal tub and reduction gears to replace this bulky apparatus was a great improvement. By 1920, the coopered wooden tub was no longer being manufactured. Beatty Brothers of Fergus, Ontario was the first company to produce an agitator washing machine. The early Beatty machines had ribbed copper tubs which were nickel or nickel-chromium plated. In the US, the first firm to adopt agitator technology was Maytag. The vertical orientation of these machines became the industry standard replacing the horizontal rotating axis of earlier machines. Starting in the 1920s, white enamelled sheet metal replaced the copper tub and angle-iron legs. By the early 1940s, enamelled steel was used and sold as being more sanitary, easier to clean and longer lasting than the other finishes. The sheet-metal skirt was also designed to extend below the level of the motor mount. In the early 1920s, a number of Canadian machines were offered with built-in gas or electric water heaters. By the 1930s, domestic water heaters were in many homes and the washing machine heater was of little use. The addition of a motor-driven drain pump at this time moved the machine one step closer to complete automaticity. The next development of the washing machine was the fitting of a clock timing device which allowed the machine to be set to operate for a pre-determined length of wash cycle. Now, the operator no longer needed to constantly monitor its action. By the early 1950s, many American manufacturers were supplying machines with a spin-dry feature to replace the wringer which removed buttons, and caused accidents involving hair and hands. In 1957, GE introduced a washing machine equipped with 5 push buttons to control wash temperature, rinse temperature, agitation speed and spin speed.

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