The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-10-03


Each washer consists of two oval cylin-
ders one within the other They are
both made OF cypress or Georgia pine.
The inner cylinder is fixed SO that it can
revolve very rapidly. The inner cylin-
der is full of holes, and both cylinders
have big trap-door openings on top, as
shown in the cut. The clothes are
placed in the inner cylinder and the
trap-door closed. Then soap and warm
water is put in the space between the
inner and outer cylinder and the outer
cylinder door is closed. BY means OF
power from an engine the inner cylin-
der ia made to revolve at a great rate,
and the soapsuds, starting through the
holes, wash the clothes inside finely.
Thus the clothes are subjected to no
tearing and grinding, as is commonly
imagined. The washing cylinders are
of all sizes, and some of the larger will
wash at one time either $50 dozen collars
and cuffs or $50 shirts. The big laundries,
of course, have each good many of the
washing machines.
Tho washing process proper takes
good while. The man in charge OF it
puts upon each machine chalk inscrip-
ton stating the exact time at which the
washing began. Say that the clothes
were put in a machine at 1:30 o'clock p.
m. They are washed in the First soap
suds" till 2:15, and in the second soap
suds" till 1855. Then they are rinsed
for ten minutes and bleached for forty
minutes. Then they receive two fresh
water rinsings before they are ''blued, :"
and are then thoroughly rinsed again.
From the wooden washing machines
the clothes are taken to cylindrical iron
affairs known as centrifugal wringers. I"
The centrifugal wringer consists, like
the washer, of two cylinders, one within
the other, and the inner cylinder full Of
holes and capable of revolving at a
rapid rate. The inner cylinder is of
polished brass and is called a "baslet,"
and its revolutions amount TO fifteen
thousand per minute when the full
power is applied. The wet clothes are
placed in the inner cylinder and the
cylinder turns. The great rapidity Of
the revolution, of course, packs the
clothes in solid mass around the inner
sides of the inner cylinder, while the
water that was in them streams out of
the holes in the wide cylinder and is
carried away in tubes. Not drop of
water can be wrung out of the clothes
when they are taken from the machine.
Thus by this machine the clothes in
the wash are not harmed nearly as much
as by putting them through between the
rubber rolls of an old-fashioned
"wringer." The old-fashioned wiring
err" OF course, is still the only machine
that can be attached to q tub and used
by q washerwoman. And as such, of
course, it will long live.
Then the clothes-the shirts and col
lars and cuffs, that is-are starched and
hung up in places called 'drying-boxes."
These are simply long iron racks, as
shown in the cut, inclosed in big iron
box or closet, and so arranged that each
rack can be drawn out of the box to
near;y its full length. When all the
racks are shut in the closet is almost
air-tight. Steam radiators in the closet
bring the atmosphere there to a temper
ature of 30 degrees or so, and in this
the clothes dry very quickly. The racks
in the drying-box are made of galvan-
lied iron and brass, so that the clothes
hanging on them do not get furnished.
When the clothes come out of the dry
ing-box they are. of course, very stiff,
and the shirts have to be pressed be-
tween dampened cloths before thev can