A steamy affair - from 1913, a tale of life, love - and laundry
FOR a really steamy love story, think about ... the laundry. It's hard to imagine, but the laundry industry is no different from any other in having its tales of romance — at least that's what the Herald told its readers way back in January 1913 when it took them on ''A Visit to an Up-to-Date Laundry.''
The paper had got itself into a lather about the West of Scotland Laundry Company in Milngavie, a major employer in the town and an enterprise at the forefront of washing technology.
Readers would never think about their washing in quite the same way, thanks to the love interest the article introduced.
It told how Robert, Duke of Normandy and father of William the Conqueror was returning from a hunting expedition when he saw the beautiful Arletta washing clothes in the brook that flowed past her dad's mill.
We must assume that but for that encounter, there would have been no Battle of Hastings to give every scholar the one date that all remember.
''We are reminded, too,'' said the Herald, ''that his Grace the Duke of Marlborough, at the commencement of the Battle of Blenheim, was found by his aide-de-camp sitting calmly in his travelling carriage sorting out his soiled linen for the wash, and he was quite content for an epoch-making battle to remain in the balance until the despatch of his cambric shirts to the laundress was assured.''
This revelation that laundry is sexy will confirm what every husband who has bought his wife an iron as a birthday or Christmas present instinctively knew...
But then, author J.G. Ketchen, chief sub-editor and member of the House of Lords Press Gallery, originally wrote the article for The Gentleman's Journal, and what would an Edwardian male know about something which at that time was strictly women's work?
''But, fascinating as the subject of the past may be,'' continued Ketchen, ''it must be sternly avoided, for our object is to describe the process in an up-to-date laundry as seen by the writer on the occasion of a surprise visit.''
THE writer noted: ''Milngavie is an ideal place for a laundry, for there is health in every breath ... We are tempted to say it would do the clothes good merely to bring them to Milngavie and let the fresh clean air blow upon them.''
The first lesson a visitor to the laundry learned was that the day of doing everything by hand was past. It was 1913 after all. ''This is an age of machinery, and in no industry has so great a revolution been wrought as in the modern laundry.''
Readers learned what happened to the parcels of washing delivered by a fleet of vans which brought them to Milngavie in those days before domestic washing machines and tumble dryers.
''Shirts go into one bin, collars another, flannels a third, woollens a fourth, and so on. The articles having been collected, counted and classified, the next operation is to cleanse them, and they are now passed on to the washhouses.''
The clothes only came into contact with water, soap and soda — but not caustic as the writer discovered when he tasted it. This was investigative journalism indeed.
''The clothes-destroying chemicals never enter this laundry, and the soap used is chosen with greater care than most people exercise when choosing their butter.
''The clothes are put into power washing machines, which consist of an outer cylindrical casing which holds the soap and water, and an inner cylinder made of brass and a surface as smooth as a mirror which revolves.
''The clothes are placed in the inner cylinder, and soap, soda and water in the outer cylinder. The inner cylinder is perforated, thus allowing the soap and water to reach the clothes. As the inner cage revolves the clothes are carried up on the side of it clear of the water until they reach a point where their weight overcomes their adhesion to the cage, and they fall into the water, thus forcing it through them and thoroughly removing the dirt without rubbing or scrubbing, and with the least possible wear and tear.
''While in the machine they are soaked first, then washed in soap, soda and water, then boiled, and lastly thoroughly rinsed and blued.
''The washing completed, the machines are emptied of their load of linen, which is carried on a truck to the hydro-extractors.''
The article reminded housewives that when they did their washing at home, they had to wring the garments out by hand or squeeze them between two rollers, all of which would in time ruin the cloth.
But in the high-tech West of Scotland Laundry, the clothes were placed in the perforated cage of the hydro-extractor which spun at 1200 revolutions a minute.
Clearly impressed by these technological marvels, the writer took a swipe at Luddite critics who thought there was no substitute for washing by hand.
''Not so many years ago we were frequently encountering waggish descriptions of the beating machine, the tearing machine, the button-wrecking machine, and the collar-roughening machine. But we meet them no more. The writers of these facetious articles have been forced to admit that there is no machine that can lay claim to one-twentieth of the damage done by a fairly active washer-woman and a good hard scrubbing brush.''
Describing how the laundry used different methods of washing and drying to suit different types of cloth, the writer said: ''Washing has been raised to a fine art in this laundry, and after several years washing, clothes retain their original purity of colour.'' Eat your heart out, Daz Ultra.
Flannels and woollens were finished on steaming tables which softened them and raised the felt, giving ''an effect equal to that secured by the finisher of the new fabric.''
Once washed and dried, the garments were sent to the ironing rooms.
''In appearance the irons used are somewhat like the old box-iron, but instead of being heated by a piece of ret hot iron dropped into them they are heated by gas.
''Air under pressure is mixed with the gas, and the two are supplied to the iron through a flexible rubber tube. The mixed gas and air enter the irons by many small jets which are lighted, and these miniature blowpipe-like flames heat the iron.
''This is a great improvement on heating irons by means of stoves. The irons are always at one steady heat, and are always clean and in good condition for work. It is, morever, never necessary to test the heat of the irons by the old-fashioned but unsavoury method of trying if they ''fizzle.''
''There is also a complete outfit of steam ''bolts'' which take the place of the domestic Italian iron, but are of various shapes and sizes to adapt them to the work they are called upon to do. Being steam heated, they are always hot enough for their work, but never hot enough to scorch.''
BUT even in a place as state-of-the-art as the West of Scotland Laundry, there still remained some work that in 1913 was best done by hand.
A new method for laundering shirt collars involved the girls preparing them with cooked starch, then smoothing the surface with their fingers.
''They then become set in this shape by hanging a little while in a hot room, and all the ironing required is the passing under an iron five times.'' This apparently was the latest American technique. Prior to that collars were starched in cold water and dried with 100 strokes of the iron.'' The laundry could turn out 2500 collars daily.
''Goffering on finery is done by hand with the usual goffering irons, but for pillow slips and such articles there are neat little goffering machines, driven by power and heated by gas, that give the fluting so much admired.''
Writer Ketchen went on to marvel at the ''artistic perfection'' afforded to ladies' delicate blouses and finery, babies' and children's clothes, and even curtains which were always spotless and certain to hang straight.
And with mechanical and vacuum beating and brushing systems, grimy and faded carpets came out looking like new.
''After ironing and airing the goods are brought to the despatch department, where every customer has her own bin...the various articles are checked with the customer's list, and only when that tallies are the goods packed up. Much thought has been given to this branch of the work, because, as the manager said, 'Nothing is more annoying to a lady than to find things for which, probably, she is anxiously waiting, missing from the hamper or parcel.''
The article finishes with a note of praise for the laundry staff. ''A healthier, happier staff we never saw, and their work shows that they have been chosen for their skill in the trade. West of Scotland residents are to be congratulated on having so excellent a laundry to minister to their wants.''
ALISTER BLYTH
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Friday 25 May 2012
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