The Coconino sun., 1927-10-07

they had to be very careful to do all
the "fulling" before the cloth was
made up. Pity the poor fuller" whose
distinguished Roman patron would
send his slave with a scorching mes
sage, penned in classic Latin phrases,
stating that his toga had shrunk until
it immodestly showed his noble ankles!
Modern laundries may well sigh for
those good old days when the finisher
of textiles was also the cleaner of
them, and there was no chance for
substitution, poor weaving, over
stretching, fugitive dyes or over
bleaching.
The page of history records no fell
low countrymen of the great Caesar
fussing about their laundry service
the laundries knew>exactly what fab
RIGS they were getting, and there was
no such thing as substitutes. Even silk
and cotton were unknown. Fabrics
washed exactly as they were supposed
to wash, and it was from those times
that we get the phrase, dyed in the
wool"
The fullers, next to the bakers, were
the most numerous class of tradesmen
in Rome Indications are that our So
called modern civilization will put the
twentieth century laundryman back IN
his historic place!
Up to as recently as 1882, practical
ly the ancient processes of fulllng
were in use in England, except that
rude hand-power machines had been
partly substituted for the hand and
foot action. Soap was still too ex-
pensive for general use, having been
but recently invented, and lye and am
monia and fuller's earth were used
as for thousands of years past
France claims the first laundries to
wash clothes with the use of steam
about 1789-established by member
of Napoleon's cabinet.
Between 1897 and 1875, patents
were issued on something like 1000
washing devices alone, besides num-
erous ironing machines, to be oper-
ated by every known kind of power,
with the possible exception OF mules.
So many lifetimes-all seemingly
masculine-devoted to the struggle to
get away from the use of human
power-and especially woman power
in washing and ironing clothes!
1t seems odd that it is sometimes
so difficult to persuade the woman
power to apply itself on Monday and
Tuesday to more fitting tasks! May
be the women just naturally distrust
these masculine contraptions. Yet
they buy millions Of dollars worth OF
washing machines and use them In
their homes, at great duplication OF
expense and labor.
The first authentic power washing
machine designed in America for the
use of the public consisted of water
tipht box. filled with suds and clothes,
and whirled around by power supplied
from a secondhand donkey engine
from a ship. 1t sounds like mans
idea of a labor-saving invention, and
it was.
That vanguard of civilization, the
pioneers in the first great gold rush
to California, Travelled so fast and so
far in their search for the precious
metal that they left their women
membranes behind. Being deprived
of the privilege of marrying their
washing equipment, as they had done
from time immemorial, they had to
invent something to take its place.
Possibly some of them felt that there
were CO1lpGISdLlOHS. AZ ally AdcOt
some enterprising Yankee found that
the surest way to collect gold dust
was to wash the shirts and other gar
ments of the womanless contingent
about them. From this humble begin
ming grew the great Contra Costa
laundry, of Oakland, one of the fin
est and largest in the entire world.
Real laundry machinery, both for
washing and ironing, was actively de-
veloped because of the needs of the
hotel business, and the first installa-
ton of power machine in America,
produced under patent, and used for
the public service, was made in a
hotel in Pittsburgh in 1851 by a
Yankee by the name of Hamilton
Smith. He figured out many of the
basic patents now in use in the busi-
ness, for both washing and ironing
machines.
We figure, though, that the real
cause of all these patents was the fact