The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-28
LAUNDRY WORK.
The Systematic Manner i'm Which 1t Is Car
ried on in Large Cities.

The Systematic Manner i'm Which 1t Is Car
ried on in Large Cities.
New York Mail and Express.
OF the many thousands of persons in this city
who send their soled linen to steam laundries
to be washed, but very few have the merest no
ton of now the work of these establishments IS
done. The perfection to which the business has
been brought is readily shown by the statements
that in any steam laundry in New York bun
die of dirty clothes could be thrown in at the
door of the receiving room, marked entered on
the books washed, dried, starched, ironed pol
| ished sorted wrapped in paper and delivered to
the wagon at the door of the distributing room
in fifteen minutes from the time they first en-
tered the building in a crumped and soiled
condition. This would be lively work
cleared to do it. but it could be
done. The process Of laundering begins with
the collection of the soed clothes by the laun-
dry wagon drivers, who have regular routes or
districts to cover. Some laundries employ as
many as twenty to twenty-five wagons, which
make collections every day in the week When
the driver has gone over his route. he dumps the
clothes, ali neatly tied in bundles, into the mark
ing or receiving department In case the bun
die belongs to a regular customer, but little
work needs to be done in the marking room, but
the bundle of new customer has to have the
name address, day of collection and driver on
it. These copied into book, the bundles
are opened and the clothes in them are assorted
Dy u gang OF nauQS employed 1Or Lnat purpose.
Care Is always taken to look over the shirts to
see that no valuable studs have been left there
In; the pockets of white vests are also searched
to make sure that nothing of value is in them.
Salua5les are always carefully entered in book
and returned. 1t was only the other day that
at one of the estknown laundries in the city
very valuable diamond stud was found in a
shirt. 1t was returned and the finder was gen
erously rewarded for his honesty.
After the clothes have been properly entered
q "a pn
given a washing number, dumped into a uni
versal pile which contains the whole days wash
ing and finally handed over to the head washer.
The washing machine Is huge cylindrical
drum revolving in trough of boiling water,
with which is put liberal amount of SOAP bor-
ak or patent washing fluid After
tho clothes have remained in this long enough to
loosen the dirt they takeE out, allowed to
drain, then placed in a trough full of clean wa
ter, constantly renewed. At the end of this
trough is wringer worked by hand or steam,
capable Of wringing 100 shirts in three minutes,
and the attendant dexterously weaves the
clothes into fiat rope as they enter the ma
chine and pass through into another trough
full of fresh water After thorough stir
ring and pounding il this, they are
wrung out into third trough, and thence
to a fourth. and are then ready for the final
wringer. This is metal drum full of holes,
which revolves horizontally at enormous speed,
making ], 700 revolutions minute, and the cen
trifugal force presses the last drop Of water out
of the clothes, leaving them simply moist. The
heavy pieces are hung out to dry, while the
shirts and small pieces and all fine goods are
sent to the drying room, where in a very few
minutes they are as dry as chip. From there
the white pieces 60 to the starcher and thence to
the roner. and the tlannels and coarse clothes"
direct to the ironer
Articles OF female wear are then passed over
to the fluters. ruf1lers etc. and the shirts go to
q deftly fingered young woman, who with a piece
of bone or ivory raises the rleats on the bosom
and examines them carefully. If they are soiled
at all they are sent back to the washer again.
Torn articles. or such as have in any way been
damaged since their arrival in the building 60 to
the seamstIess, and when all is right they
ready for the polisher The shirt polisher is
large iron having q heater inside, and which
be pressed by foottreadle down onto
haf-revolving block, covered with blanket or
calico The polisher puts the bosom in place
over the block. presses down the iron with his
foot, and bis assistant. with q coupe of rapid
backward and forward motions of the crank
which turns tho block provides friction enough
to give the linen fine gloss. This however,
has the disadvantage of being rather rough Oh
ones linen. Collars and cuffs are polished in
the same way. turn down collars being pressed
10y hand into shape after they are polished
When the clothes are cleaned and finished
they are taken to the distributing room The
wonderful adaptability of the mind and the sense
OF location is shown here With huge bundle
in his left hand, and seventy or eighty piles in
number on the collar. locate the pile to which it
belongs. and place it snugly there in nest with
out false notion and almost as fast as the eye
can follow him.
The machinery and plant of good sized
laundry will cost all the way from $4,000 to
SIS 600. and tho establishment will give EN-
ployment to between 200 and 800 persons the
majority of them women. The profits on ladies'
fire fancy wear are enormous, but general
work men in the business complain that they
are miserably small The theatrical profession
is great source Of revenue to the laundrics.
1t is no rare thing for actresses bills to run
from SIS to $50, ard sometimes as high as $40
"a week
The cost TO tho other sex of keeping clean
clothes is OF course much less The wash bills
of single gentlemen range from IS cents to So
per week Four dollars is regarded "a az extra
ordinary bill. Several of the laundres hold
yearly contracts with the hotels and steamship
lines. but in some of tho former are to be found
u fully equipped steam laundry.