'Whatever you do Eddie, keep your fingers away from the wringer!" As a little boy, I heard that warning often on Wednesday, which happened to be Mom's laundry day. We had an unfinished basement ...

The American Floating Ball Washing-Machine, patented by Indiana farmer Mr. Moore in 1857, employed 200 to 300 floating elm wood balls the size of Seville oranges (about 3″) to gently rub clothes ...

In 1870, E. T. Evans of New Castle placed an advertisement in the Middletown Transcript for Doty’s Clothes Washer and Universal Wringer that promised some relief from the drudgery of washday.

The Historical Museum’s collection of wash-day appliances was increased recently with the donation of a “James Washer” — a hand clothes washer made in Independence, Kan. This model of washer ...

Thanks to Maytag, doing laundry is practically effortless these days compared to the washing, rinsing, wringing and line-drying of 74 years ago. Jorgensen: Getting my pigtail stuck in the washer's ...

If my wife does not get home soon, I'm going to have to buy some new socks--or wash the clothes. I hate washing clothes despite the fact that modern washing machines make it a simple and fast process.

In the 1950s, laundry and dry-cleaning shops began offering a variety services in Phoenix, including pickup, delivery and drive-through services.

In August 1888, Ellen Elgin, a black woman housekeeper, invented a clothes wringer which allowed clothing to be washed and dried faster by feeding clothes through two rollers to wring out the ...