History of Technology: The Washing Machine

“The story goes like this: Technologies make life better because they make life more convenient; that is, they save time, conquer space, and create comfort. Technologies perform task we might otherwise have to for ourselves. They relieve us from drudgery, labor, and physical exertion. They make it easier to go more places faster. They minimize the everyday struggles that were commonplace for our ancestors. In all they make life easier.” (Slack, Wise p. 28) The washing machine fits the ideal mold of this definition of convenience. Before the first type of washing machine was invented in 1797, the attempt to make clothing clean was a chore that was considered a hardship. In early history, before the 1700’s, women would rinse and dry clothing to rid of themselves of the odor that they felt was unbearable. Different regions developed ways to get soiled clothing back to a clean state. Many crew members would tie their clothes up in sacks and throw them overboard, allowing the ocean to fumigate their wares. Later, other practices were developed to get clothing clean such as using ashes from animals or the chemical called lye. (http://ezinearticles.com/?History-of-Washing-Machines---Who-Invented-the-Washing-Machine?&id=1935786)
Culture’s beliefs have determined the technology of the washing machine. Washing clothes is culture’s retaliation against nature’s perspiration and the world’s dirt. To clean laundry is to fight against all that is considered unclean and to construct techniques in which make this possible. The ideas have progressed from beating laundry against a rock, the use of a scrub board, hand powered drum machine, and much later the rotary machine. The rotary machine, which was seen as the model of convenience, has transformed into much more than its first debut. Many of the first washing machines were first made of heavy steal and had wooden tubs. (http://ezinearticles.com/?History-of-Washing-Machines---Who-Invented-the-Washing-Machine?&id=1935786)
As many of the early inventions that the culture deemed necessary, were invented before electricity, therefore most were operated by hand. People so longed for assistance washing their clothes, that the use of the tubs proved helpful. Basically, the machines were made up of a stick with four fingers and it moved clothes around in a bucket or tub. The alternative was much more laborious and the early machines fit the mold as helpful. (http://www.gizmohighway.com/history/washer.htm)
The washing machine, the Thor as it was called in the beginning, was later made with a galvanized tub. The Hurley Machine Company was the first to put this machine on the market, but soon there were many more companies to follow. (http://inventors.about.com/od/wstartinventions/a/washingmachines.htm) The washing machine advanced with the people of its time. It has surfaced new parts, new shapes, and added more features as people have demanded more from it. The modifications of the machine have met the standards of the culture and time around it. By 1937 General Electric expanded James King’s 1851 version of the washing machine to introduce the first modern washing machine to the world. (http://simplywash.com/washing-machines-history/)
When looking at the invention of the washing machine, in all of its progression to better serve its people, it is valuable to revisit the idea of convenience. In Ruth Schwartz Cowan’s book, which studies the technology of a household, household conveniences and the relationship of the nature of work in the home is assessed. Cowan argues that while household technologies, such as the washing machine, do indeed reduce drudgery of washing clothes, it does not take away the labor of the task. The shift, in which Cowan argues lies where there must be a housewife full time in the household to operate these technologies. At the same time, the standards of being clean and meeting different health standards becomes a new found problem alongside the rise of the household technologies. (Slack & Wise, p. 34-35) “However, the network of connections that constitute this technological system do not, in the end, reduce labor and save time; instead, the network of connections is part of a shifting burden in which the demands to collapse time and space become in, in a sense, an inconvenience.” (Slack & Wise, p. 35). Cowan’s view sums that if there is a washing machine; one must now wash clothes often.
Ironically to Cowan’s measures, an inventive husband produced the idea of a washing machine for his wife. His device was simple yet later would be profound. He called this machine for her a gift. (http://www.ehow.com/facts_5031534_history-automatic-washing-machine.html)
Commercial showing the different faces of the washing machine.