How did everyday life change for those who got a washing machine after it was invented?
How did everyday life change for those who got a washing machine after it was invented?
The washing machine has changed very much everyday life since it was invented. This invention meant for many families to change the hard work of washing clothes by hand to a new machine that did this hard work.
Until the arrival of the washing machine, washing clothes meant a few days of really hard work. Every week all, year long, there was a washday. A woman would scrub the clothes. “The soap, which they had made from lye, was not very effective but they could not afford to buy soap. Lifting the clothes out the vat and wringing them was an effort. Of course, their hands were raw and swollen.” (The impact of the washing machine on daily laving in post-1950 Santiago, Chile, 2006, pp.85)
For women, it meant hauling and boiling water, scrubbing, wringing, and hanging up their own family’s wash. Because this labor was so hard, middle and upper class women could have their maids wash their clothes by hand.
“With a washing machine, however, middle and upper class women did not require a washerwoman, but only middle and upper class women could buy it because it was really expensive”. (Baird, J. November, 1993).
The first washing machine was semiautomatic, it means these washing machines required women to fill up and drain the machines and would only agitate clothes to clean them. There was not spin cycle so, after the cycle was complete, women had to wring out clothes by hand, but these washing machines eliminated the need to fetch and boil water, scrub by hand, and hit clothes. To people, the washing machine was a miracle. They could not believe the machine did the work while they spent their time doing anything else.
Hans Rosling (2010) tells a story about how the washing machine changed his family’s life. He tells he was four years old when he saw his mother loading the washing machine for the very first time in her life. His parents had been saving money for years to be able to
The washing machine has changed very much everyday life since it was invented. This invention meant for many families to change the hard work of washing clothes by hand to a new machine that did this hard work.
Until the arrival of the washing machine, washing clothes meant a few days of really hard work. Every week all, year long, there was a washday. A woman would scrub the clothes. “The soap, which they had made from lye, was not very effective but they could not afford to buy soap. Lifting the clothes out the vat and wringing them was an effort. Of course, their hands were raw and swollen.” (The impact of the washing machine on daily laving in post-1950 Santiago, Chile, 2006, pp.85)
For women, it meant hauling and boiling water, scrubbing, wringing, and hanging up their own family’s wash. Because this labor was so hard, middle and upper class women could have their maids wash their clothes by hand.
“With a washing machine, however, middle and upper class women did not require a washerwoman, but only middle and upper class women could buy it because it was really expensive”. (Baird, J. November, 1993).
The first washing machine was semiautomatic, it means these washing machines required women to fill up and drain the machines and would only agitate clothes to clean them. There was not spin cycle so, after the cycle was complete, women had to wring out clothes by hand, but these washing machines eliminated the need to fetch and boil water, scrub by hand, and hit clothes. To people, the washing machine was a miracle. They could not believe the machine did the work while they spent their time doing anything else.
Hans Rosling (2010) tells a story about how the washing machine changed his family’s life. He tells he was four years old when he saw his mother loading the washing machine for the very first time in her life. His parents had been saving money for years to be able to