Washing By Steam.
The Times, 1824-06-28T00:00:00

This year has been realrarkblv prolific of public companies, foa almost every purpose to which a highly inproved state of the arts and sciences Iuld direct a redundant capital. We have had com- panies of all descriptions-from the aristocratic speculatois, wlih offered to lend large sums on lands and houses, down to the mode- rate association who were content to advance small ones on caps anud gowns. We have seen companies for draining bogs in [reland, &nd for making patent coffins in this country; some forsharing the profits of the pawnbrokers of Alanchester, and others for partidpats ing in the gains of tne insurance brokers at Lloyd's. These were natural, and perhaps fair subjects for commercial speculation; but who could have thought that the arts ar.d sciences, backed by large capital, would have taken the field against the washerwomen of the metropolis, and attempted to drive them from the tubs of which they have seloneheld undisturbed possession ? So it is, however and the name of i The ,London Patent Steam Washing Company" is to beatded to thelist of those to which the presentyear iasgiven rise.The object of this companyis, as its name imports, to wash clothes of all de. scriptions by the application of steam. For this purposean extenRivee.- tablishment has lately been erected at Phipps.bridge, near ierton, Surrey. The use of ste3m in cleansing clothes is, we are aware, not new, but the manner of its application in thepresent case is, we think, novel and ingenious. Scarcely apeasat woman in France w:o is not acquainted with the processof boiling theclothes bY steam, by placing them in a wooden vessel fixed over the boiler, and perfo- rated with several holes at the bottom. In this manner, the dothes having first been sprinkled with an alkaline sohition, are freqcndtly turned, and bv the action of the steam perfectly cleansed. The plan aehas many advantages over- this simple process. e placed in copper vessels, where the action of the steam is brought to bear ona them with great force, and by thle re- volving of the vessel the steamn can act upon every part equally. Af- ter being perfectly cleansed in a shorl time, the clothes are taken up to a large loft and there dried by "steam." The works at Phipps-bridge arc not yet finished, and of course the Company hav not fully establishce the practicability of the process but from what we Sa of the plan, we have no doubt that clothes can be washed much whiter in a shorter time, andI witl much less injury front rubbing, than by the common application in the tub, of soap, and the wrists of the laundress. These are the principal advantages which thle proprietors offer to the public, with the additional, and not unimportant one, that their method will eon. sideranbly redluce the expense at wlhichi families get their washing doene at present. We will not stop here to inquire how far any dis- covery which tends to reduce the demand for manual labour ought in the present state of society to be considered a benefit, for we are sa- tisiedl that whichever way that question might be decided in theory, it would be founjd in practice that every man would get his business done (no mactar whether by machinery or otherwise) by that means by wvhich it could be done best aud cheapesL If the Washing Com- pany shall prove on trial that theirs is a more economical and less injurious mode of" getting up" clothes than that now in use, no doubt the public will deal with thbem. If it should turn out other- wise, they, and not the public, must bear the loss of the speculation. WA4 Sl ING B Y S rEAh.