Editing Laundry (section)

=== Washing machines and other devices ===
{{unreferenced section|date=April 2017}}
[[File:Mangle-Shorland-TOPMS 3377.jpg|alt=Mangle |thumb|201x201px|A typical mangle of the early 20th Century]]
[[File:Model Steam Laundry, Colfax, Washington, circa 1900 - DPLA - 458c069b157ffc5cf13674b5e41957c2.jpg|thumb|Model Steam Laundry, Colfax, Washington, {{Circa|1900}}]]
[[File:Woman's Friend - Indiana State Museum - DSC00433.JPG|thumb|The "Woman's Friend" washing machine, {{Circa|1890}} U.S.]]
The [[Industrial Revolution]] completely transformed laundry technology. [[Christina Hardyment]], in her history from the [[Great Exhibition]] of 1851, argues that it was the development of domestic machinery that led to [[women's liberation]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hardyment|first1=Christina|title=From mangle to microwave: the mechanization of household work|date=1988|publisher=Polity Press|location=Cambridge, UK|isbn=0-7456-0206-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/frommangletomicr0000hard}}</ref>

The [[mangle (machine)|mangle]] (or "wringer" in [[American English]]) was developed in the 19th century — two long rollers in a frame and a crank to revolve them. A laundry-worker took sopping wet clothing and cranked it through the mangle, compressing the cloth and expelling the excess water. The mangle was much quicker than hand twisting. It was a variation on the [[box mangle]] used primarily for pressing and smoothing cloth.

[[File:Clothes wringer.jpg|thumb|A clothes wringer and hand washing tubs]]

Meanwhile, 19th-century inventors further mechanized the laundry process with various hand-operated [[washing machine]]s to replace tedious hand rubbing against a washboard. Most involved turning a handle to move paddles inside a tub. Then some early-20th-century machines used an electrically powered [[agitator (device)|agitator]]. Many of these washing machines were simply a tub on legs, with a hand-operated mangle on top. Later the mangle too was electrically powered, then replaced by a perforated double tub, which spun out the excess water in a spin cycle.

Laundry drying was also mechanized, with [[clothes dryer]]s. Dryers were also spinning perforated tubs, but they blew heated air rather than water.