The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1899-01-17
PASSING OF WASH DAY,
STEAM lAUNORIES DANISH BLUE
MONDAY" AND BOILED DINNERS"

fiat work requires entire factory build
ings with hundreds of employees.
Their work is collected principally
from hotels, steamships, saloons and
restaurants by wagon loads, and in
many places is finished up at the rate
of 200 pieces a day, says the Chi
cago Record. A steamships table
cloths, sheets, towels, etc., are fire.
quently received and delivered clean
within two or three hours time. I'M
proved machinery has revolutionized
this work, and it is now done on a
Wholesale basis; for, whereas twelve
years ago fifteen cents was charged
for one sheet, 100 are now washed
and ironed in these establishments for
seventy-fve cents, or 100 towels for
forty cents.
The trough dry" laundries collect
general no usehold work from nun
dreds OF small laundries and agencies
around town. This central business
has 80 developed that only the collars
and cuffs are accepted by some, as
there is moro profit in them and
smaller machinery required. TWEEN
ty-five thousand shirts is not an I'M
common weeks work for great
trough dry" laundries, and this
means at least two OF three collars,
cuffs and other garments with each
shirt.
Since the first steam laundry was
started In 1853 the Patent Office has
been besieged with thousands of labor
saving devices for all branches of
laundry work Electricity is largely
employed in the most recent of these,
and, in fact, laundrieD are now using
it for their motive powers and in heat
ing irons, etc. One of the leading
machinists in the trade states that as
soon as its success is understood cleo
tricity will be used exclusively in some
of the works for running the machin-
cry, heating the dryrooms, mangle
rollers, the irons, choking stoves
even for bleaching-as well as light
ing and heating the buildings.
There are, too, some wonderful
machines in use which are kept from
the public eye, and others which are
expected to work. wonders when put
into operation. One of these is q
combination of ironing machines in
which a rough shirt is automatically
ironed, the bands and bosom polished
and the shilt folded up ready for de-
livery. Another man claims to have
machine which will wash, starch and
iron pieces without any rehandling.
AS result of Yankee ingenuity in
this line, our laundry machinery is
being used in all parts of the world.
Notwithstanding the improved ma
chimes already used, it may surprise
many to know that our collars and
cuffs are handled twenty times in the
improved laundry flor two cents),
shirts fifteen times and other articles
proportionately less. A brief descrip-
ton of the workings of trough dry"
plant will explain this point.
From the collecting wagons the
work is piled up before the clerk for
entry, after which private symbolic
mark is put on each agency's work. A
sorter next distributes the various ar
ticles, quantities of which are con-
veyed to the washing machines. The
latest models wash as many as 800
shirts at once. The work is put in
divisions of the inner perforated cylin-
drical roller, which, connected with
the driving pulley, is automatically
rolled around, first one way, then the
other, the suds being forced through
the clothes as they continually fall.
Twenty minutes sufices to cleanse
them, when the suds are run off and
clean water substituted for rinsine.
From the washers the dripping
trifugal "wringers. These are
shaped like large tubs, their sides are
full of small holes and they are fitted
into iron stands of the same shape.
but larger. The clothes are packed
in, covered over and the power turned
on, revolving the inner tub 1000 or
perhaps nearly 1000 times minute.
The rapidity OF movement forces the
water TO the sides, through the holes
to a wastepipe, and in twelve min
utes they are eflectually squeezed dry,
with buttons, trimmings, etc, intact.
Ten thousand pieces a day can be
wrung ont by each one Of these ma
chimes, which were invented and used
originally for extracting strip from
sugar
As the clothes are som ewhnt in
twined when taken out they are next
put into shake.out machines. These
are simply clean cylinders turned by
power, in which they roll until each
piece is free, thus preventing hand
shaking and pulling pieces apart.
The clothes are now hung on clean
bars and pushed into narrow closets
extending in rows, steam heated to
about 200 degrees, where they dry in
from fifteen TO twenty minutes They
are hung so that they may be removed
by the armful Starchiug, which
comes next, is also done by machines
Of various types. The shirt-starcher
has the appearance of square hoz,
inside Of which two metal arms are
rapidly shifting back aud forth. The
operator removes half Of the lid AMI
inserts n folded bosom, with the wrist
bands between the two arms ON the
inside Of which are fastened rubber
and brass strips, acting as knuckles
in rubbing in the starch contained in
tho box.
The patent dampeners now used are
valuable though simple contrivancea.
a metal roller having very fine grooves
over it's entire surface is revolved in \