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- This
column by John Cosway is a mix of 50 years of media memories
and 15 years of buying and selling experiences via live and online
auctions, flea markets, antique stores and markets etc.
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- Cosway's Corner -
Back to the clotheslines, ladies (and gents)
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- Pull the clothes dryer plug - save hydro,
smell fresh
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- By John Cosway
- The provincial government wants your laundry back on outdoor
clotheslines to reduce energy consumption, air pollution and
greenhouse gas emissions.
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- It is encouraging you to pull the plug on hydro-zapping automatic
dryers and get with the wayback times - heavy tubs full of wet
laundry, clotheslines on pulleys, pouches full of clothes pegs
and the freshest smelling clothes in town.
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- Rural folks still using clotheslines probably weren't aware
of clothesline bans in urban areas and selected housing developments
until the McGuinty government announced it wants all bans lifted
by this summer.
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- Clotheslines in urban areas became an endangered species
due to complaints. Can't have undies blowing in the breeze and
unsightly backyards.
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- But the McGuinty government says reducing energy demands
and the reduction of pollution trump clothesline complaints.
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- That said and read, the evolution of washing and drying clothes
came to mind - from the caveman to 21st century man - and woman.
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 Washing
- It has been a long and winding road, from the pounding of
laundry on rocks, primitive soap and rinsing in creeks and rivers,
to high-tech machines catering to every fabric, every colour
and every taste in appliance decor.
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- And along the way, innovations like the scrub board, invented
in 1797; the first patented rotary washing machine in 1851 and
the laundry tub wringer, which was added in 1861.
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- That first 1851 washing machine, invented in the U.S. by
James King, was said to be a hand-powered drum that resembled
today's washers it wasn't designed for household use.
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- Historians say housewives everywhere can credit William
Blackstone, an inventive and loving Indiana husband, for
introducing a hand-powered wooden washing machine in 1874 that
was designed for the home. It separated dirt and grime from all
sorts of laundry.
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- Blackstone made his first washing machine for his wife as
a birthday present. The company he founded in Jamestown, N.Y.,
five years later is manufacturing and selling washing machines
more than 150 years later.
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- Early washing machines took a diverse route, beginning with
the hand-powered machines, followed by machines powered by external
engines, gasoline and then electricity in the early 1900s. Bachelors
and low-income families in Fort Worth, Texas, welcomed the first
coin-operated laundromat washing machines in 1934.
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- Recognizing the future of washing machines, research and
development teams worked overtime on improving their performance
and style.
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- And it was John Chamberlain of the Bendix Aviation
Co. who invented the first automatic wash and rinse machine.
The 1937 household model had to be bolted to the floor to prevent
it from shifting while operating, but it did its job.
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- When World War 2 curbed the manufacture of washing machines
and other home appliances, researchers devoted the war years
to perfecting their products. They were prepared for the post
WW2 sales boom, selling millions across North America,
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- For more than a century, ropes and wires used for clotheslines
and required walking back and forth to laundry tubs. Walking,
bending, stretching. Whew!
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- It is said Harold Wright took notice of his neighbours
walking all those steps in their backyards in the 1940s and in
1946, his aluminum clothesline pulleys, for use between porches
and trees or poles, hit the market to loud applause.
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- How about a big cheer for all of the innovative men who created
household washing and drying products designed to ease the workload
of women.
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- So, taking stock, in the decades leading up to the 1950s,
North American households had electric toss and tumble washing
machines with wringers, wooden then metal laundry tubs, wooden
clothes pegs, rope and then wire and aluminum clotheslines on
pulleys, irons and ironing boards.
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- What more could housewives ask for to lighten the workload?
Automatic dryers.
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- Drying
- Gizmos designed to ease the laundry drying process surfaced
in the 18th century, with the invention of wringers, later modified
and perfected for use in households well into the 20th century
and still used today commercially.
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- Wringers, designed to minimize water in clothes before pegged
to the clothesline, hastened the drying process, but took their
toll on the fingers and other body parts of inquisitive youngsters
and absent-minded housewives.
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- "Caught in the wringer" became part of our vocabulary
thanks to that invention and some very painful experiences.
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- While primitive electrical clothes dryers were on the market
before 1920, it took the post-WW2 home appliances revolution
to spread the use of dependable household dryers to millions
of homes across North America.
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- Maytag was among the first companies to manufacture automatic
dryers in the early 1950s and Maytag and other manufacturers
have been perfecting the automatic dryer for five decades.
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- Now, the McGuinty government says dryers need to be unplugged
to reduce energy consumption in Ontario and reduce pollution
and greenhouse emissions.
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- The cost of drying laundry on outdoor clotheslines? Priceless.
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- Besides, you just haven't lived if you have never held a
frozen pair of pants in the depths of a frigid, Ontario winter.
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- Are clothesline bans all washed up? Stay tuned.
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- There are several more ways to conserve energy. Unplug the
automatic washing machine and go back to washing and wringing
laundry in hand-powered tubs. It would make your ancestors proud.
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- Unplug the refrigerator and bring back the icebox, the iconic
piece of furniture in Ralph and Alice Kramden's Brooklyn flat
in the 1950s Honeymooners television series. Summer isn't summer
without the iceman chipping off pieces of ice for the kids.
- Unplug the dishwashing machine and wash dishes in the sink,
drying them manually. Finicky house guests will be impressed
by the lack of soap spots on the cutlery.
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- Unplug the TV, DVD, VCR, PVR, stereo receiver and assorted
other electronics and gathering with the family in the living
room to listen to radio programs, either old time radio favourites
or the more modern dramas and comedies.
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- Energy consumption and pollution concerns aside, there is
something to be said about our unplugged wayback times.
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- Clotheslines could revive the lost art of friendly, over-the-fence
backyard chats with neighbors while hanging out the wash;
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- Iceboxes, with limited space, could make consumers more aware
of food consumption;
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- Washing and drying dishes by hand might help revive the sharing
of household chores;
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- Returning to radio's "theatre of the mind" could
curb boob tube brain drain.
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- Just don't ask us to unplug the computer.
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- We would be totally lost.
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- Other articles by John Cosway
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