The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-11-06

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send them to the Mellon institute or
to this model laundry for considera-
ton. All this costs money. of course,
but the laundrymen are willing to
spend the money in the effort to give
better service to their customers.
1t is of considerable interest to the
man who sends the shirts and the COLI
lars to the laundry. and then pays the
bill for them on their return, to know
just how they get that way. To fol-
low a family washing thru the ma
chinery of the modern laundry is to
get back at all. until the machinery is
closely studied, and then it becomes
evident.
They Blame Ironing Process.
Most men blame the ironing process
for the tears and the worn places on
their shirts. 1t is interesting to note
that on only one portion of the shirt,
and in only one operation, is there any
friction, or any possibility of wear on
the shirt, from the time il leaves the
drying room to the time it is delivered
to the customer.
All the ironing is done now by the
process of pressing the clothes in
steam thru them at the same time.
Only in the oldest fashioned hand
laundry is the old flat iron still known,
Mr.. Ripley said. In the modern laun-
dry the shirt starched, and properly
moist. is placed first on a press like
the one in which your suit is rejuVe-
mated. There most of its area is
smoothed. Snatched from this press
it is handed to an operator who ar
ranges it on a form, shaped as much
like the human neck as possible
shaped at least as the human neck
should be shaped. over this form fits
another form. Again the pressure and
the steam. From this press to an,
other, which does the same duty for
the cuffs the last one performed for
the neck band.
Now a Funny One.
And then the funny one. The bes-
oms rae next, and the Shirt Is slipped
gently over another form. Thru the
lower half OF this form, steam is rising
slowly as the pressure is applied. and
when the top half is lifted, the shiny
bosom of the shirt is pulsating, rising
and falling as If worn by most ardent
lover, who is in danger of contracting
heart disease or spraining his cardiac
valve system by the heart throbs to
which his passion is giving rise.
Then comes the only bit of friction
in the whole process. The sleeves of
the shirt are slipped over a revolving
cylinder, and down on the cylinder fits
anothed padded press One revolution
of the, cylinder and the sleeve is
pressed.
In following the course of the shirt
the sock ironer is passed. Sock
ironer" is a misnomer. The sock iron
er is simply a steel form, shaped some
thing like a human foot, and heated
too hot to be touched with impunity.
By the time the sock is slipped on and
off again, the heat and the tension
have smoothed it and shaped it.
Nothing Like Washboard.
Nothing much like the old wash
board, the wringer, and the pounding,
skidding flatiron. is it? Maybe there
is something to this thing about the
quality, or lack of it, being responsible
for the damage, after all. Who knows :?
There are several phrases in use by
laundrymen and their patrons, which
go to help along the idea that a laun-
dry is death to buds"
The very name, power laundry"
suggests horrible machines which
garm ents.
Try to Change Name.
1.-THE mangle" is another piece of
machinery whose name the laundry
men themselves are trying earnestly
and unsucoessfully to have changed.
A mangle is properly a machine
which is used in the early stages of
the manufacture of cloth, and man
giles were found only in the textile
mills of England at first.
Then someone invented contriv-
ance of heated rolls, between which
pieces of flat work." sheets, table
linen, and the like, are passed. The
rolls are padded. and on every roll
and press in the laundry there is a
mometer-goVernor which automat-
ically prevents the temperature from
rising to a point at which the fabric
can be scorched.
The "mangle" can't even be called
so any more from the view point of
the operators, for there is a guard
roller which prevents their hands from
being drawn in with the cloth which
they are feeding into the machine.
Flat work ironer" is the name
which the laundrymen are trying to
substitute, by education and usage, for
"mangle."
Don't Want Clothes Mixed.
Many housewives dislike to send
their clothing to the laundry because
they don't like to have it mixed with
the clothing of some unknown family,
possibly clear off in the next block.
But each family batch of laundry
work goes thru the entire laundering
process, entirely separated from other
patches, and without the possibility
of becoming mixed with other peoples
clothes, except thru accident on the
part of some employe-and consider
ing the number of family washes
which are handled, these accidents
are remarkably infrequent. system
is now being installed at at least one
Topeka laundry, whereby even the
marking of linen will be avoided in
the future, and it will be impossible
for the most care ess employee to get
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