18G1.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Q13 
Washing Day—A Clothes Dryer. 
We are writing at ten A. M. on Monday. Just 
at this hour, there are in this country more than 
four millions of females bending over the wash- 
tub in exhausting labor ! The thought is not 
startling; there are ten millions of other adult 
persons, male and female, hard at work, with 
body or mind, in other occupations. The fact 
that four millions are at the wash hoard , is sug¬ 
gestive, however. In the four million families 
where washing is being done this morning, the 
number who use anything else than the old 
wash-board, is so small as not to be taken into 
the account. The inventors of the hundreds on 
hundreds of patent “ Washing Machines ” which 
are as yet little used and likely to remain so, will 
make a note of this, and understand that there 
is still abundant room for the exercise of their 
mechanical ingenuity. There is not the small¬ 
est doubt that as soon as a cheap, convenient 
washing machine is invented, one which will 
cost but little, and prove to be decidedly supe¬ 
rior in practice to the old fashioned wash-board, 
it will come into general use. Many tolerably 
good washing machines are already invented, 
but not one of them appears to exactly hit 
the universal wants of the community. We 
could find fault with eveiy one we have seen. 
Though our own washing is mainly done with 
a “ Metropolitan,” and we like it, yet it is not 
perfect, and it is too costly for universal use. 
It is undoubtedly cheap at ten dollars; yet com¬ 
paratively few families will divide its cost over 
washing days enough to make it 
appear cheap enough to purchase 
this year. So keep on, Messrs. In¬ 
ventors, the end of your labors is 
not yet reached.—Then there is 
the wringing machine. We got 
one, and our people were in ec¬ 
stasies over it—it saved such a 
world of wrenching of the shoul¬ 
ders, arms, and hands, and it sav¬ 
ed the garments too from the 
straining of the fibers. Well, we 
like it just as well as ever, and we 
say every family ought to have 
one. But it cost ten dollars at first! 
and most families could not pay 
that sum for the new machine. 
We said so to the manufacturers 
and begged of them to set their wits 
to work to get up a cheaper im¬ 
plement. By the application of 
machinery, and changing its structure, they 
came down to eight dollars, and sold more 
machines, but, as we repeatedly told them, it 
was yet too costly. Now they have got down 
to five dollars, and we think the thing will go. 
It would pay the purchaser at ten dollars, and 
it must come into use at five, certainly. 
Washing Fluids and Washing Powders, were 
all the rage a few years since. A villainous 
concoction of lime, potash, spirits of turpentine, 
etc., did up the cleansing in double quick time; 
but the turpentine was bad for the health of the 
washer; and the alkalies were exceedingly bad 
for the health of the garments. Most of the 
washing compounds are now properly number¬ 
ed among the things of the past; the old fash¬ 
ioned compound of grease and potash, or soda, 
is yet the thing for the wash-tub, and likely to 
remain so for some time to come. 
The Clothes Line is one of the annoying things, 
in the experience of nine out of ten of our house¬ 
wives. If we had all the men together, we would 
give them a lecture which should at least set 
them to thinking. The poor stakes, half put 
up, in all sorts of places; and the half rotten 
“ lines ” consisting of five to forty odds and ends 
of broken bed cord, ropes, strings, etc., are far 
too often the only means of drying the clean 
linen and cotton that the good woman has spent 
so much time upon. Every man who does not 
provide a good strong clean clothes line, with 
good supports, and a grass covered plot, away 
from dust, don’t deserve a clean shirt, nor, we 
like to have said, a good wife; but such a man 
certainly does need a good patient wife. A whole 
chapter could easily be written upon clothes 
lines; but everybody, at least every woman, 
knows the difficulties experienced in the matter, 
better than we can describe them, and the men 
would not read the chapter if it were written. 
Any housewife who has not had more than one 
hard day’s work spoiled by the breaking down 
of a line, and hundreds of other pieces soiled by 
weather beaten cordage or flying dust, is more 
fortunate than nine hundred and ninety nine 
others of her sex. That’s so. There is, how¬ 
ever, one bright side to the picture. The 
amount of ingenuity and skill exercised by most 
women in contriving to keep the clothes lines 
up, with nails, pins, sticks, boards, etc., has un¬ 
doubtedly done much to develop mechanical 
skill, and bring out latent powers of mind! 
The last paragraph on clothes lines, indeed 
the whole subject, has been suggested by a 
glance out of our study window, at a new 
fangled “ Yankee Notion,” standing in the lawn, 
labeled “ Hawse's Patent Clothes Dryer," which 
the manufacturers had the kindness to send out 
to us a few weeks ago. It’s a good thing, indeed 
the finest thing of the kind we have seen, though 
even this is “ open to obj ections ”—so the women 
folks say. But they would be loth to part with 
it, and their verdict is, that every housekeeper 
should have it who has not already abundanca 
of room, plenty of grass, and good lines. It is 
convenient, holds a large number of garments In 
a small space, is quickly folded up and carried 
under cover so as to preserve the cordage from 
being weather beaten, and can be put up ready 
for use in three minutes. It is rather ornament¬ 
al than otherwise, and cheap, since one having 
120 feet of line costs but $oi, including frame, 
cordage, and foot post or socket, complete. For 
larger sizes the cost is about a dollar extra for 
each 30 feet of line. The chief or only objec¬ 
tion is, that though the garments are far enough 
apart to dry well, they partly shade each other, 
and the women say that they want the bleach¬ 
ing effects of the sun upon every part of each 
white garment. As this can be secured in very 
few places, especially around city and village 
dwellings, and the new clothes’ dryer is other¬ 
wise a great desideratum, it is worthy of pretty 
general adoption. 
The engravings, figs. 1, 2, and 3, require little 
explanation. Fig. 1 shows the Dryer elevated 
as when in use. The garments are left off in 
order to better exhibit the implement itself. 
Fig. 3 shows it when let down to a convenient 
bight to receive the garments. Fig. 2, shows it 
folded up ready for carrying in. The upright 
shaft is set into rings on a foot post, which stands 
only 12 or 15 inches above the ground, and does 
not disfigure a lawn or grass plot. After bring¬ 
ing out the frame work, and setting it in the 
sockets, the simple pulling of a cord raises or 
lowers the lines to the position seen in figs. 1, 
and fig. 3. The cord works in pullies so easily 
that a child can elevate or lower the framework 
when loaded with wet garments. The entire 
frame is so arranged upon sockets that it re¬ 
volves upon the central shaft, and any part of 
the cordage can be easily brought around to the 
basket. After two months’ trial, and a thorough 
examination of this and other apparatus de¬ 
signed for the same purpose, we are prepared to 
recommend this as the best we have seen. It is 
advertised in this paper by one or more parties. 
-— .--■ --- 
Ironing Apparatus Wanted—A Fortune 
for Somebody. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
Among your hundred thousand or more read¬ 
ers, is there not some one who is Yankee 
enough to invent an ironing machine, and make 
his fortune ? I feel almost certain that if men 
had to do the ironing for a family, week after 
week, especially in Summer, they would soon 
get their brains heated enough to invent almost 
any thing. Washing day is bad enough, with 
its suds and slops, and hard work, and cross 
husbands; but half its terrors are gone at our 
house since we procured the Metropolitan 
washer, and that complete wringer. Every 
thing is put away snug and tidy before husband 
comes home on wash-day, and it is worth the 
price paid for those articles to see his smile of 
satisfaction. A few years ago some one brought 
out a two-story smoothing iron, with a minia¬ 
ture stove in its basement to contain burning 
charcoal, which kept the iron heated for a long 
time, and saved some steps in running from the 
table to the stove, to change irons. But it did 
not lessen the work of smoothing the clothes, 
and the charcoal fumes right under one’s nose 
while at work, were not only unpleasant, but 
positively injurious, and we pronounced the 
thing a failure. There are what are called man¬ 
gles, used in large laundries, I believe, for 
smoothing linen, but thev are not adapted for 
Fig. 2. 
