The Portland daily press., 1879-05-21
WEDNESDAY MORNING, MAY 81.
Washing and Ironing by Whole
sale.
y From the Boston Transcript

From the Boston Transcript
1t is undeniably cheaper to wash large
quantity of clothes in one place than several
places, and if no laundry work were done in
dwelling houses, it would be possible to have it
performed elsewhere at an expense no greater
than that now incurred for fire, soap, labor and
apparatus, while the owner of the laundry
would make handsome profit in consequence
of the saving effected by improved methods;
but the fact that the majority of persons have
their washing done at home makes the demand
for laundry-work comparatively small, and ne
cessitates heavier charge than will be made
in the good time coming, when "set tubs will
be classed among ancient nuisances instead of
modern improvements.
There are no set tubs in steam laundry and
in fact no tubs of any kind. The bundles of
clothes are opened as soon as they arrive, care
fully examined, to see if their contents agree
with the sender's list, marked with number
and sent to the washing machine. 'Yes, says
Dame Notable, "to be pulled and twisted and
tied up in knots for an hour, and to come out
again without having single soiled place prop
erly rubbed, and then sent to be bleached in
something that rots them all to pieces But
ing member of the empirical school of phil
osophers. The clothes are neither pulled nor
twisted, but simply put in barrel which is
made to revolve five times, and then, by an in
genlous bit of mechanism, turns five times in
the contrary direction, repeatedly drenching
the clothes that it contains with Suds that is al
most but not quite boiling. There are no dash
ers, wheels, or rods against which the clothes
can be torn, no furious boiling to make them
turn yellow, and nos incessant whirling in one
10 sr,+D
impervious to water. Out of this hot bath the
clothes are drawn and sent to the wringer, not
to be pulled between rollers and robbed of all
their buttons, but to be put into an open-work
basket and whirled about at the rate of 400
revolutions a minute, the water flying out
through the sides of the basket, and the clothes
in their efforts to do the same pressing them
selves almost dry. A rinsing and a second
wringing tit them for the drying-roem in which
they stay eight minutes. Any garments which
when examined before ironing are found to
have been SO soiled that the suds have not
cleansed them, are sent to be bleached and af-
terward submitted to thorough bath in pure
water; as a rule, rather less than one piece in
hundred is included among the ''wash-overs'' as
the bleached pieces are called, and those that
are sent are generally so clean that they would
be considered passable if done at home, but the
managers of laundries find that nothing short
of his ideas of perfection will satisfy customer
The ironing rooms contain nothing especial
ly curious except the mangles. The machine
which will iron the shirts has yet to be invent
ed, although the task may be ightened by
carefully shaped boards and convenient heat
ers, and although the temperature of the room
may be lowered by placing the stove in venti-
lated enclosure, ironing is the same hard work
in a laundry as it is elsewhere. That it is not
very unhealthy, the appearance of the girls en-
gagged in it gives ample evidence, most of them
being unusually strong looking Dresses,
ladies undertaking and pillow shams are also
ironed by hand and curtains are pinned on a
large frame while damp and dried in the sun;
but cuffs, towels, handkerchiefs, sheets and
pillow cases are put through the mangles,
which with steam plays the part of Mantalini
while pretty girl takes the place of his
shrewish wife. Two rollers covered with felt
and cotton successfully press the articles to be
smoothed upon large heated roller and drop
them upon shelf beneath, whence they are
taken and again submitted to the rollers, the
whole process being conducted so rapidly that
fifty cuffs can be ironed in two minutes and a
quarter; for towels and plain unstarched artiss
cles another mangle is used, which dries as
well as smooths them, and turns them out all
ready to be folded by the swift fingers of a girl