Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1892-07-29
WASHING BY MACHINERY.
WORK IN THE BIGGEST LAUNDRY
IN THIS COUNTRY,
Quick Work With an Ocean liners
Wash-Steam Power Used Alto
gether-Pay of EMPLOYEES

gether-Pay of Employees
IN I'D you ever see big laundry in
full blast2 1t is worth seeing.
When the News reporter
visited this Hudson River fac
tory, the washing from one of the great
Inman liners had just come in. 1t was
the washing for a whole week-the
washing for 1000 persons. There was
bedding, linen, napkins, towels and
some few articles belonging to the ward
robe of some of the officers. The rest
of the wash belonged to the ship. 1t
rolled up to the door in two wagons,
and it rolled out on the floor of the
sorting-room and spread out like dirty
snow storm in high wind.
The work OF sorting this wash took
Just twenty minutes, and four young
women, with bright brown eyes and
bright red arms. After it was sorted,
the big pieces going with the big pieces,
and the little pieces staying with them
selves, it was taken to the washing
machines. Once there were wash tubs.
There are washtubs now, but they are
simply amateur appliances. The pro-
fessional wash shop employs washing
machines, otherwise called "washers. F"
These contrivances are from five to eight
feet long, and are shaped like the boiler
of locomotive. They are made of
metal and they revolve on their axes,
like the cylinders in lawn mowers.
They are connected with the shaft by
puileys, and when the clothes are put in,
the door closed aud the water let in by
pipe, the crank is moved, and then
they begin to revolve with mighty
swishing and slashing in their insdes.
After few minutes of this, which is
called the soaking, the water is let off
and hot water is turned on. With hot
water soap is brought in and the crank
is turned again. This time it Is for
keeps, and when the washer stops the
clothes are clean. This is the sort of
washing that requires no starching, so it
goes direct to the wringer. This is the
kind of wringer that the original laun-
dryman knew naught of.
The wringer up to date is round box
set upon four round legs, made of gas
pipe and hollow. The interior of this
box revolves several hundred times
minute. This turning interior holds the
wet clothes, and from it dry Clothes are
turned out. They are not entirely dry,
but they are dry enough to go to the
ironing room. The revolutions of the
interior are SO swift that the water is
thrown off in showers.
The ironing room IS flled with iron
rollers, set in frames, so chat one roller
rolls against another, like the rubber
rollers in an old fashioned wringer.
One or both of these rollers is hollow,
and is heated by either gas or steam, and
the sheets and pillow cases, napkins,
towels and table cloths pass between
these rollers and come out steaming hot,
smooth as glass, and white.
For some kinds of laundry work a
dry room is required. Now this dry
room bears about as much relation to the
drying room in the ordinary house as a
French bonnet does to bread bowl. 1t
is small affair, heated red hot by steam
pipes. For starched goods this is used,
and does its work in a hurry.
The laundry that the reporter visited
uoes not ihdke Practice Oh uolnS famlly
work, although it has facilities for do
ing any kind of work. 1t devotes its
time chiefly to hotel, club and steamboat
work. 1t can turn out 100, 600 pieces a
day, and the average price for 100 is
from thirty-five to sixty cents. These
figures are for unstarched work, and
they are very low. 1t requires 40 per.
sons to do the work. The washing is
done wholly by men, who get s12
week each. The rest of the work is
done by girls and women, who ale SUI
pervised by four forewomen, who get
Sl7 a week and their board.
The workwoman get from sixty cents
10 81 n day, the folders in the ironing
room commanding the highest wages
New York News.