History of Washing Machines

Spinning's cycle: the history of the washing machine

While today we might think of stonewashing only in terms of our favorite jeans, stonewashing 500 years ago was the norm for all clothes—well, all dirty clothes, that is. Washing machines got their start in history with the simplest of tools: sand, stones, and good, old-fashioned elbow grease. Clothes were scrubbed with sand, then pounded against rocks and given a final stream-water rinse.

Functional fact: Soap was derived from fat found in sacrificial animal remains in ancient Rome.

Launderers first got a helping hand in 1797 with the invention of the scrub board. Clothes were scrubbed (hence the device's name) against the rough board; but while the scrub board eliminated the need for sand, the washing process, compounded by early lye soaps and heavy tubs of hot water, was just as labor intensive. James King built the first hand-powered washing machine in 1851, but the idea wouldn't really catch on for nearly another 20 years. Enter American merchant William Blackstone. In 1874, Blackstone thought he’d help his wife out with the best present a woman could want: the first washing machine. Blackstone's washing machine, while still a manually powered device, took the hand-scrubbing out of everyday washing; housed inside the main tub, a small, flat, pegged piece of wood, moved by the use of an outer hand-crank, removed grit from clothes.

Functional fact: Historians don't know exactly who invented the first electric washing machine.

Once Blackstone began mass producing and selling his washing machines, competitors emerged in full force—and they brought technological advances with them. Wringers were developed and added to washing machines in 1861; metal replaced wood in at the turn of the century. Electric motors were added after the arrival of the steam engine, and by 1906, motor-powered washing machines had hit the market. Those early machines' motors rotated the tub; Maytag's first washer in 1907 featured a rotary handle and flywheel. Our contemporary "wash cycle" was born in the 1930s with Bendix Aviation Corporation's automatic washing machine, designed to wash clothes and drain washing water away in one sequence.

Functional fact: Washing machines are hooked up at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass.; Internet technology in the machines allows students to monitor laundry cycles online.

Today's washing machines are either "top-loaders," which load from the top, or "front-loaders," which load from the side. Most American washing machines operate with an agitation system; the inner cylinder moves back and forth while paddles in the washer's drum lift clothes.

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