The Maytag Company first sold their wringer washing machines in 1907. They were a resounding success; production did not halt until 1983. The simplicity of these machines was the key to their success. A person poured in some water, put the clothes and detergent inside, turned on the machine and ran the clothes through the wringer once they were clean.
Laundry Before Machines
Ancient peoples cleaned their clothes by pounding them on rocks or rubbing them with abrasive sands and washing the dirt away in local streams. The Romans invented a crude soap, similar to lye, that contained ash and fat from sacrificed animals. In colonial times, the most common way of washing clothes was to boil them in a large pot or cauldron, then lay them on a flat board and beat them with a paddle called a dolly.
The metal washboard, which many people associate with pioneer life, wasn't invented until about 1833. Before that, washboards were made entirely of wood, including the carved, ridged washing surface. As late as the Civil War, laundry was often a communal ritual, especially in communities near rivers, springs, and other bodies of water, where the washing would take place.
The First Washers
By the mid-1800s, the United States was in the midst of an industrial revolution. As the nation expanded westward and industry grew, urban populations mushroomed and the middle class emerged with money to space and a boundless enthusiasm for labor-saving devices. A number of people can lay claim to inventing some kind of manual washing machine that combined a wooden drum with a metal agitator.
Two Americans, James King in 1851 and Hamilton Smith in 1858, received filed patents for similar devices that historians sometimes cite as the first true "modern" washers. But others would improve on the basic technology, including members of the Shaker communities in Pennsylvania. Building on work begun in the 1850s, the Shakers built and marketed large wooden washing machines designed to work on a small commercial scale. One of their most popular models was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876.
Electric Machines
Thomas Edison's pioneering work in electricity accelerated America's industrial progress. Until the late 1800s, home washing machines were hand-powered, while commercial machines were driven by steam and belts. That all changed in 1908 with the introduction of the Thor, the first commercial electric washer. It was marketed by the Hurley Machine Company of Chicago and was the invention of Alva J. Fisher. The Thor was a drum-type washing machine with a galvanized tub. The Thor brand continues to be used today to sell washing machines.
As the Thor was changing the commercial laundry business, other companies had their eye on the consumer market. 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. Another well-known brand, the Whirlpool Corporation, started in 1911 as the Upton Machine Co., in St. Joseph, Mich., to produce electric motor-driven wringer washers.
Washer Trivia
- A washing machine invented in France in the early 1800s was called the ventilator. It was a barrel-shaped metal drum with holes that was turned by hand over a fire.
- One of the first African-American inventors of note in the 19th century, George T. Sampson, received a patent for a clothes dryer in 1892. His invention used the heat from a stove to dry clothes.
- The first electrical clothes dryers appeared in the U.S. in the years before World War I. Some people still prefer to dry their clothes the old-fashioned way, on a clothesline, however.
- In 1994, Staber Industries released the System 2000 washing machine, which is the only top-loading, horizontal-axis washer to be manufactured in the United States.
- The first computer-controlled consumer washer appeared in 1998. Fisher & Paykel's SmartDrive washing machines used a computer-controlled system to determine load size and to adjust the wash cycle to match.
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