Countdown to Christmas

14 - Washing Machine

• From cumbersome to fast and hygienic: For thousands of years doing the laundry meant carrying the laundry to a (more or less) nearby stream or bringing the water from there into the house and of course collecting firewood to heat the water. Owning a lot less clothes and no time to wash them often, people had to wear the very same stuff for days – modern day smells like a big improvement!
   
• From time consuming to time efficient: Today, we can leave the unloved task of doing the laundry entirely to the machine, regardless of the weather or time of day. This frees up a lot of time and energy that we can use for far more pleasant, productive or leisurely activities. And let's not forget the washing machine's brother: the tumble dryer.
   
• Overcoming gender-specific differences in housework: Laundry has been hard work mostly reserved for women. With a washing machine (and other modern gadgets) in the home, men help more and are less dependent on a wife. However, we are not quite there yet: in millions of households today, women still have to do the laundry - by hand! No doubt, they too would prefer to invest their time in education and prosperity, in quality time and health or in social and political activities.

Inventors

The oldest patent for a mechanical washing device was issued to John Tyzacke in England in 1691, unfortunately without stating details of its construction. In the mid 1700s different models of washing machines with crude agitator technology were built – still hand-powered but more efficient than hand-washing.

Later steam engines powered the machines, but only after Alva Fisher had the idea of an electric washing machine and Louis Goldenberg, an engineer at Ford Motors, actually built the first one called “Thor”, the washing machine could slowly make its way into private homes.