Description:
Red-painted, wooden washing machine composed of a nailed rectangular box supported by four tapered legs, two of which rise to receive a pivoting rail that accepts the piston-like component that agitates the two walking feet suspended in the box from a pair of long, narrow boards that pivot from a frame nailed to the sides of the container. This is a very significant early example that has survived in amazing condition. Assembled with both wrought and cut nails, it appears to date from the first years of the 19th century. Doing the laundry was the most demanding and backbreaking household commitment to hygiene because of the labor and time required and the value of clothing and textiles. The ladies of the rural elite undertook heavy housework with the assistance of hired help and children. Washing and ironing was particularly daunting and consumed at least one day per week in most households. Appliances could help with the laundry, and hundreds of United States patents were secured for washing machines beginning in the 1790s. However, the presence of such a machine in the home may have served as a status symbol more than as a labor saving advantage because of its inefficiency. This example, found in southern Maine in 1996, was used for a brief time before it was forgotten, perhaps because the pair of walking, boot-like agitators failed to whisk away that ground-in dirt. This early labor-saving device came at a cost for early adopters, however. For example, in May of 1836, a Hadley, Massachusetts, resident was charged the relatively high sum of $11.00 "for 1 Washing Machine."
Label Text:
Patents for washing machines were filed with the United States Patent Office by 1812, as interest in labor-saving devices for the home took hold of the public’s imagination. The pump handles of this prototype activate two wooden stepped “feet” inside the tank, producing a shuffling motion meant to agitate the wash. Although variations of this mechanism were patented in the 1820s, the use of both hand-wrought nails and cut nails in this example suggest construction around 1810.
Only wealthy families in western Massachusetts, such as Deerfield landowner and farmer Ebenezer Hinsdale Williams (1761-1838) and his wife Joanna “Anna” (Smith) Williams (1770-1852), could afford a washing machine. The 1838 probate inventory of Williams’ estate lists an example.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+96.049 |
