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Thread Number: 6764
dryer sprinklers |
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| Post# 135287 6/12/2006 at 14:32 (6,521 days old) by askomiele (Belgium Ghent) | ||
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I've seen a lot of dryers on this site. But some models, out of 1950-1960 has a sprinkler thing. What is it? I can't imagen what it could be? Did we have that in europe as well? | ||
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Post# 135291 , Reply# 1 6/12/2006 at 14:54 (6,521 days old) by mrboilwash  (Munich,Germany) |
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Post# 135293 , Reply# 2 6/12/2006 at 15:05 (6,521 days old) by launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Designed to "sprinkle" Madam's laundry with water so she would not have toto the work. Sprinkling dry laundry with water was the way one got dry items damp for ironing. One sprinkled laundry with water, then folded items up and let them rest for awhile. While resting the water would spread throughout the items (one hoped)making them damp enough for ironing. This was how ironing was done for cottons and linens before the advent of good steam irons. Even then most women prefered to dry iron damp laundry for best results. The other way for sprinkling laundry was to do each item by hand, and there was a huge variety of items designed for this project. They ranged from wisk brooms to bottles with various caps that had small holes. One could even buy just the caps to use on empty soda pop bottles filled with water. As one could imagine, sprinkling the amount of laundry most homes had was a long, tiring process, hence the dryer attachment. Remember in the good old days most EVERYTHING was made of either cotton or linen and had to be ironed after laundering. Not to iron one's laundry was seen as slovenly and a sign of poor housekeeping. Some women cheated by doing only such items as their husband's shirts,children's and their clothing. Sheets and other linens were either not ironed,or in the case of bed sheets, only the upper third (the part that showed), or just the pillowcases. Sleeping on "rough dried" bed linens was often seen as a sign of poverty because the wonderful heavy cotton and linen bedding simply did not look nor feel "right" without being ironed. Those who could afford it either sent their items out for laundering/ironing or had someone come in to help or out right do all the laundry. Women more chores than money likely would have skipped ironing. Considering it could take three days to complete laundry, you begin to understand why so many women were happy to give up ironing, even after automatic washing machines/dryers became common. Such attachments died out as less and less ironing was done, especially post 1960's with the advent of permanent press, wash and wear, and more emphasis on wearing/using clothing and linens that did not require ironing. Launderess | ||
| Post# 135309 , Reply# 4 6/12/2006 at 17:22 (6,521 days old) by roto204 (Tucson, AZ) | ||
Wow! | ||
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Post# 135343 , Reply# 6 6/12/2006 at 21:59 (6,521 days old) by launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Hand vs Machine Ironing
Actually according to my Speed Queen,Thor, Miele, and Pfaff ironer manuals, items ironed via mangle/ironer should be drier than if one was ironing by hand. Items to be ironed via mangle should be just damp enough so one pass through the ironer will dry/iron the material, otherwise items will wrinkle again as they fall in folds after coming out of the mangle. My Spartan, Elna, and Hurley press irons also give the same advice. My Pfaff ironer, and IIRC the Miele ironers are ventilated on each end, which helps moisture escape,thus keeping the padding/roll cover dry. Older ironers did not have this feature for the most part, thus ironing too many items that were too wet would leave the padding damp, interfering with the ironing process. With hand ironing one has the benefit of ironing an area, over and over, until it is dry. Even this is not an efficent use of time, and all my vintage laundry books advise housewives not to make the common fault of having their laundry too damp. Linen is the only fiber that needs lots of moisture and really high heat to press/iron well. Cotton does well being damp "as if one took the item in from the line on a poor drying day". as Mary Proctor's book puts it. When I got my first mangle, did make the mistake of having items too damp, and could not figure out why my ironing looked like something the cat dragged in; not that I've been "schooled", I'm cooking with gas! *LOL* Launderess | ||
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Post# 135358 , Reply# 8 6/13/2006 at 00:18 (6,521 days old) by launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Today's cotton fabrics are no where as "clean" as those from say the 1950's or so. Tons of chemicals such as OBAs,resins and god only knows what else are common. Not to mention the potential for heavy pesticide residue because of the intense way cotton is farmed these days, at least in the United States. Do not think ironers will make a major comeback anytime soon. Ironing is ironing, and while a machine may make it easier, today's housewives are looking to do less work with laundry, not more. Miele and Pfaff still seem to sell lots of ironers in Europe, but the United States market is mainly owners of BBs,small hotels and others with large amounts of linens to process,but no room/electrical connection for the smallest of commercial ironers. | ||
| Post# 135507 , Reply# 12 6/14/2006 at 01:10 (6,520 days old) by washinsheen () | ||
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Oh yeah, in addition to the box of Tide and the sprinkler bottle included w/the Frigidaire washer I mentioned above, we got a free coloring book all about the model of washer that my parents were buying. | ||
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Post# 135515 , Reply# 13 6/14/2006 at 03:25 (6,520 days old) by launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Damp vs Damper Dry
Some fabrics iron better with less moisture, others need more. Cotton irons well when it is slighlty damp, while linen needs to be quite damp, almost wet and ironed with a really hot iron. Silk dryer than cotton, but still slighly damp. Rayon and most man made fabrics iron best dry with a steam iron. If your ironing is drying out before you can get to each section, it may not have been uniformly damp, or you are taking too long pfaffing about! *LOL* Seriously, just keep a spray bottle or damp sponge handy to "wet down", any dry areas. This was common enough back in the day, and no harm is done as long as you do not make the area too wet. I like a good plant mister bottle as it makes a nice fine spray. Some cheap spray bottles squirt streams of water or leave huge droplets. L. | ||
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Post# 135602 , Reply# 14 6/14/2006 at 16:03 (6,519 days old) by tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD) |
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The plant mister is what I use and it is always near when I am ironing to "erase" ironed in wrinkles and cat faces. | ||
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