The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-03-28
A BIG LAUNDRY.
CLEANING AND IDENTIFYING
MANY GARMENTS.
The Rapidity With Which the Work
Is Done, and the Machinery
Used for Washing. Starch
ing and Ironing.

| ihS anu
The bundles were wrapped in brown
paper and each had a colored ticket
pinned on, which to,d the owners name
and the number of pieces, writes Bos
ton Mruld reporter who recently investi
gated the methods of the big steam laun
dry business. With great rapidity the
young women took the bundles from
baskets on rollers that were showed
around by a boy, opened them,
counted the pieces and tailed them with
the list. Next the name of the owner
was looked for in book, and, if it did
not appear there, an arbitrary number
was assigned and each piece was marked
with indeible ink.
The sorted clothes, having been
Marked are thrown into a chute, down
which they 60 into the big baskets on
rollers, located in the region below.
Here over 100 women are hurrying
through their various tasks ut breakneck
speed. Some work by the piece, some
by the week. Picking ones way care
fully through machinery that exhibited a
yearning to take him in, the explorer
finds himself in dim corner, where half
a dozen washing machines, that look
like insane sugar hogsheads in collc,
revolve backward and forward upon al
axis running through their heals. These
are the rotary, reverse washers. These
! washers accommodate 135 shirts, weigh
1000 pounds, and occupy floor space
Gtx4 feet. They consist of an outside
cylinder, or barrel, inside which is a
smaller cylinder, rcrfora ed closely:
Each cylinder is fitted with hinged
door. Into these washers baldheadcd
gentlemen pitches an assortment of
linen, of various degrees of dirtiness.
Then he turns on tile cod water cock,
and after few minutes soaking, while
the wa her revolves at 100 revolutions q
minute, turns on the steam. Instantly
there is bubbling and the water rises to
a very high temperature. Soap in fine
particles is added and the cover of the
inner barrel is closed.
The clothing is contained in the inner
cylinder, the water being in III, outer
and bubbling in through the perfora-
tions. For fifteen minutes the boiling
goes on, when river of cold water is
turned on, to b. alterrated with another
boiling in steam and hot water. Again
the hot water is drawn off, cold water
turned on and "blueil g added. The
process requires the use o. q weak solu-
! tion of chloride of lime and small pro-
portions of oxalc and citrlc acid, but
not sufficient, it is claimed, to iniure the
fabric. In these remarkable machines the
entire process of washing is acc omplishcd.
A coal heavens shirt, black as his hat,
may 60 into the washer and after forty
five minutes it comes out "white as the
driven snow" So high is the tempera-
ture maintained that it is impossible for
| germs of disease to survive the steam
laundry process.
Next comes the drying. The clothing
J is forked out of the washer and carried
in baskets on rollers to the extractors, OF
centrifugal wringers. The clothes are
dumped into an iron and copper machine
that looks like great iron kettle stand
ing on three legs, underneath which are
a lot of cogs, pulleys and things, run by
a belt attached to the shafting overhead.
The centrifugal wringer is coffee pot
perforated with minute holes. 1t is open
at the top, and revolves 1900 revolutions
minute upon universal joint. 1t is
set inside heavy iron pot, which stands
upon the three legs described. The
clothing is placed, just as it comes from
the washer, in this machine, and the
wringer set in mot on. In four minutes
it is stopped, when the clothes are found
clinging tightly to the sides of the
wringer, almost dry. One thousand
collars or twenty-five shirts can be dried
in four minutes by these wonderful ma
chimes. The revolutions are so rapid that
almost every particle of moisture is
squeezed out by the air. The old sty lie
wringers moved off buttons like o
thrasher. In the extractor there is
neither wear nor tear.
From the extractor the shirts, collars
and cuffs go to the starching machine,
and napkins and tablecloths, sheets and
towels to the steam mangles. Starch is
boiled by steam in forty-gallon copper
boi er and laded into starcher, which
is trough fitted with wooden cogs that
revolve loosely, one upon another. Col
lars and cuffs are passed back and forth
over these cogs in Eath of starch and
then carried to the starching tables,
where girls rub them thoroughly, so as TO
drive the paste into every thread, slap
them, and finally rub off the starch
smoothly with large sponge. Collars
and cuffs arc hung upon hooks arranged
on sticks four feet long, two dozen on a
stick. The collars and cuffs are hung
by buttonhole. The starcher has large
numbers on these sticks, stuck in holes in
the woodwork, 80 that she has tier on
either hand. The shirts are taken to
, other tables, where the starch is rubbed
thoroughly into the bosoms and neck
bands, and they are hung upon long
| sticks run through the arms, six shirts
] on a stick. The shirts still hanging on
a stick, are carried to the steam dryer, as
are also the collars and cuffs. Here are
innumerable racks, upon which the sticks
are placed. It is an apartment with u
temperature of 200 degrees. dry as bone,
in which tho starched clothes become as
stiff as an aristocrat, withint wcnty
minutes. The unstarched clothing is
dried naturally.
The next process is dampiug. This is
done by placing the starched articles be-
tween sheets that are equally dampened,
and rolling them up. The clothes then
90 up stairs in an elevator to the ironing
rooms. Here are steam mangles, huge
concerns that will iron sheet or hotel
table cloth at one revolution, and shirt
bosom, collar and cuff ioncrs. They
pass through three hands. They first 60
~ ,bo bos,,,,, ;ronor who preailpa over n