The Independent. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1895-1905, 1898-11-18
THE STEAM LAUNDRY.
How the Clothes Go In Dirty and
Come Out Clean.

bpCCblOh WHO VI VIZ ilOhO-
lulu Steam Laundry Company's pre-
misses, for few OF us know how our
clothes come out clean after they
have gone in unwholesomely soiled.
Perhaps there are but few Of us
also who know that nearly Sl50,000
have been spent annually on our
wash bills, and that this amount has
gone principally into the hands of
the Chinese, although some of the
more fortunate of the Portuguese
have handled a portion Of the
amount.
The premises Of the Steam Laun-
dry are situate on the fiat OF Iwilei,
closely adjacent to the Government
Chinese laundries, and are SOx5O
and lofty, containing the main work
room, the Office and the sorters' and
dispatchers' rooms with an adjoining
boiler house with 60 horse power
engine which furnishes the neces-
sary motive power aud the steam for
laundrying.
AS soon as the bundle Of dirty
materials arrives, it is marked and
registered, the owner retaining the
same mark during his term of pa
tronage. A list is also made Of them
on a printed slip. They are then
sorted into their different varieties
of material, color and garb, and
articles of kindred character are
washed together; white goods with
white, and colored with colored
Wool is separated from cotton,
otherwise the former would shrink.
Separation having taken place
they are placed according to their
character is one OF three rotary
cylinders arranged in larger cylin-
drical container. The inner cylinder
is perforated. Gold water is let into
the outer cylinder, and subsequent
ly steam to heat the water and keep
it to regular heat, subsequently
soap is added and after a thorough
rinsing the blueing, For twelve
minutes or so these cylinders rotate
rapidly and each four revolutions
are reversed in order to prevent the
straining or tearing of the clothes.
The clothes are then removed to a
centrifugal Of copper and after about
four minutes OF intensely rapid revo-
lutions are sufficiently dry to be put
through the next stage.
This depends upon the character
of the goods. If they are to be
starched they are starched either in
a curious hexagonal container or in
the ordinary manner by sousing
They are then removed to the dry
ing room, placed on racks and dried
at temperature OF about 140 de-
grees taking from 20 to 40 minutes in
the process. Surprising that they
are shirts and collars, or such like,
they are handed over to the polish
ing machine; a neat copper roller
internally heated, and working upon
movable table. Hence they are
passed to the ironing expert who,
with hand-iron gives shape to the
article, and hands it to another oper-
ator, Portuguese girl, who gives
the finishing touches by a rotary in
ternally heated ironer
If the articles are such as table
cloths, towels, sheets, etc, they are
turned over to the large steam man
gle, combination of white canvass
covered rollers, and hence they pass
out with gloss on both sides as il
they had been starched, and beauti-
fully white and clean.
Fancy and delicate articles and
those in which ladies delight to
adorn themselves are handled by
the Portuguese girls, OF whom there
are thirteen, in addition to seven
male experts from the Coast. One
of the curious implements handled
by them is the goose egg puffer fol
ladies sleeves. This is heated in
ternally and gives the form to those
putting balloon sleeves.