Bit of technology history

[Jovial Monk]

Starting with the Vikings various devices were created to smooth clothes after they had been washed and dried.

Yeah, was surprised that those murdering/looting/raping tough guys wanted to have clothes smoothed of wrinkles. The devices they used ranged from smooth stones to glass devices. These were not heated.

Do you know what a “sad iron” was? A solid iron errr iron. Chunk of cast iron shaped to the task of smoothing clothes including a handle or fitting for a handle. Stick it on top of a range, let it heat up, iron clothes until the bloody iron is too cold. Because the sad iron was partly designed to hold a lot of heat it was BLOODY HEAVY!

I am interested in the history of beer. In 1904 England the wages for a 14yo housemaid included 8 pints of 5% London Porter! She would have needed them! From her attic bedroom to the ground floor might be 3 or 4 flights of stairs. Can you imagine swinging an iron weighing 2-3Kg all day while standing in front of a wood fired range? In an English summer or, god forbid, an Australian summer? (Navvies digging canals and tunnels etc in the early Industrial Revolution also were given copious amounts of beer. They needed it too!)

An alternative to heating irons on a range there were irons that had a ventilated container into which hot coals could be shovelled. the ventilation and movement of the iron kept the coals (embers) live. Keeping soot and smoke from the clothes was a major concern in those days—some of the irons that used coals have a chimney to vent the smoke/sparks away from the clothes being smoothed

Technology marches on, a given in our lives. For poor housewives or the housemaids of the rich rescue from heavy irons needing a hot range came the “all day iron.”

This contained a burner in the iron that burned methylated spirits or kerosene—I have read accounts suggesting both fuels. This did not need to be as heavy as a “sad iron” and did not need a chimney etc.

(I just wonder how many house fires were started by a slightly tipsy housemaids swinging overly-heated irons or tipping an “all day” iron onto its side! Add the interruption of the telephone late 19th century on and the mind boggles.

On my travels I have found a new variant—a gas fired iron!

Stay tuned.