There are at least two explanations for why the first washing machines appeared. According to the first explanation, they were created by caring husbands to ease the work of their wives.

According to the second, the impetus was the need to wash a large number of single men concentrated in one place (gold mining towns, seaports, and so on). Most likely, both versions are true.

Many centuries ago, sailors began to use the movement of their ship to wash clothes: they tied it to a rope and threw it overboard. The foam jet quickly washed away all the dirt from the fabric. Meanwhile, on the shore, the sailors’ girlfriends were rubbing their clothes on the stones, using sand as an abrasive for greater efficiency. This is how the first of the components of washing was found - the mechanical effect on the fabric.

But still, washing clothes was originally a woman’s job and one of the first women’s professions. The services of laundresses were always in great demand, and their work was very hard: from early spring to late autumn, they washed in running water, kneeling on wooden walkways. First, the laundry was boiled at home in a cauldron, and then a heavy basket was carried to a river or pond. The rinsing bridges turned into a kind of women's club, from where, to the unanimous joy of the assembled women, any man was expelled with a wet rag.

Women who did not have the opportunity to use the services of a laundress did a big wash in the house about once a month. As a rule, only underwear and bed linen, towels, and children's clothes were washed. Everything else - men's camisoles and trousers made of wool and velvet, women's silk dresses, embroidered bodices and frock coats - were not washed at all, but were only kept over steam and then cleaned with a brush (why not dry cleaning?). Back in ancient Babylon, probably the first attempt was made to mechanize this labor-intensive procedure. We have reached rock art of large wooden wheels with blades, which, by rotating, “shoveled” wet laundry in large vats.

And in modern times, the best minds have been busy with the problem of mechanization of washing. In 1797, one of these devices was created - the washboard. In the papers of the great German poet and thinker Goethe, descriptions of a hypothetical device - a machine for washing clothes - dating back to the second half of the 18th century were found. However, such ideas were first translated into reality not by scientists, but by ordinary people - peasants and gold miners.

American farmers and peasants of Western Europe, whose farms, earlier than factories in cities, were equipped with steam engines to drive agricultural mechanisms, in order to facilitate the work of their wives, made strong barrels, inside of which a cross rotated (now we would call it activator). Rotation was carried out by a drive belt or gear transmission. The mechanisms turned out to be very beautiful, their design did not stand still, becoming overgrown with ingenious devices.

In the mid-19th century, similar inventions began to be patented. In 1851, American James King patented a washing machine with a rotating drum, which was very similar to the modern one. Only the drive of his car was manual.

And in 1856, another American, Moore, patented a “device for washing clothes,” which was a wooden box on wheels, above which a wooden frame of complex design moved. Linen was placed in a box, half filled with wooden balls and filled with washing solution. The frame, driven by a lever, moved up and down, the balls rolled over the laundry, imitating the movement of many hands. Most likely, after each wash, the balls had to be washed by hand.

By 1875, more than 2,000 patents for washing devices had been registered in America alone. Not all ideas were viable and were further developed. It is clear that, for example, a machine that processed only one piece of clothing per wash had no prospects. But the machine, which was built by a certain gold miner in California, could wash a whole dozen shirts in one “batch”. To operate it, ten mules had to be harnessed. This was the first “Laundromat” in history, that is, a paid washing unit. Apparently, customers of this public laundry paid for each wash with gold sand.

Until the end of the 19th century, washing machines were mainly driven by human or animal muscle power. This was also the car of William Blackston, which this resident of Indiana gave to his wife as a gift for her birthday in 1874. Blackstone's invention went down in history as the first household washing machine. And, perhaps, the first mass-produced for sale: Mr. Blackstone, as a true businessman, set up the production and sale of his cars for $2.50 apiece. Interestingly, the company founded by Blackstone still produces washing machines to this day.

Machines spread and improved. The most important and integral attribute was the manual rollers for squeezing clothes, invented in 1861. They took their place on the body of the washing machine for almost a century and a half, and are still equipped with the simplest semi-automatic machines.

But the true countdown of the era of washing machines begins with their mass production. In 1900, the German company MIELE&CIE, which produced milk separators, began making butter churns - wooden tubs with blades rotating by hand. Then Karl Miele came up with a brilliantly simple idea - to slightly modify this design and adapt it for washing clothes.

In the same year, serial production of such washing machines began, which began to be in unexpectedly high demand. The idea was picked up by others, and various European companies began to produce wooden washing machines.

There were some oddities too. When a batch of German washing machines was brought to Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, savvy Russians quickly adapted them into... butter churns. The batch was immediately sold out, but they continued to wash the clothes by hand. A revolution in the development of washing machines was the use of a motor - at first it could be either a gasoline internal combustion engine or an electric motor.

In the American town of Eaton, in the state of Colorado, there is an unusual museum. Its owner and caretaker, Lee Maxwell, collected washing machines from the early 20th century for many years. Now Maxwell's collection includes over 600 devices, the vast majority of which were restored by him and are now in working order.

One of the first electrically driven washing machines was the Thor machine, which was released around 1908 and patented in 1910 by the Hurley Machine Company of Chicago. The inventor of the machine, Alva Fisher, went down in history as the creator of a new class of electrical appliances. The machine had a wooden drum that made eight rotations in one direction or the other. In order to bring the drum rotation mechanism into engagement with the electric motor shaft, there was a lever at the bottom of the machine. All transmission mechanisms of the machine were open - in those days they did not care much about consumer safety. Lee Maxwell says that one day, when he was talking about this to a group of museum visitors, an elderly woman leaned over and embarrassedly showed a huge scar on the back of her head. As a little girl, she helped her mother while doing laundry and the girl's hair was pulled into the squeezing rollers.

These washing machines were called activator-type machines, and machines in which water was driven by a small screw and many blades that caused the water to move in a circle were called turbine ones. The division of machines into activator and turbine ones has, in some way, been preserved to this day - in America, preference is still given to the former, and in Europe they use drum washing machines more.

By 1920, over 1,300 companies were producing washing machines in the United States. Some of them have long been forgotten, others continue to grow and develop. One of these companies, whose glorious path began at the dawn of the twentieth century, is Whirlpool Corporation. Already the first cars produced by this company in 1911 had devices aimed at increasing consumer safety.

American sociologists note that the appearance of the household washing machine in 1920 “brought washing back into the home.” Until this point, machine washing already existed, but in the form of public laundries, where housewives handed over their laundry. The advent of a washing machine that was affordable and compact enough to fit in an apartment transformed the American woman from a consumer of services (in this case, laundry services) into a consumer of technological goods, which contributed to the rapid growth of the related industry.

The structure of women's employment also changed: in the decade from 1910 to 1920, the number of domestic workers in the United States decreased by 400 thousand people. The advent of electrical household appliances (and by 1925, 53.2% of homes in the United States were already electrified), primarily washing machines, made it possible to get rid of hand washing and laundry services. By 1926, 900,000 washing machines were sold in America at an average price of $150 each, and by 1935 the fleet reached 1.4 million units, with an average machine price of $60.

Washing machines have come a long way before they appear before us in their current form; their design, size, technology used and control system have been improved.

At first, washing machines were non-automated activator type. Mechanical timers, which are time relays, were used as control devices. With their help, this or that washing or spinning time was set; the program was only partially automated - you had to be near the machine in order to open and close the water supply tap, turn on/off the electric motor and perform other operations.

Already in the middle of the 20th century, washing was automated. In current, fully automatic washing machines, all of the above procedures are performed independently by the machine, except that it cannot yet independently load laundry, washing solution and powder, and also unload after spinning. But despite all this, human participation in washing is kept to a minimum.

But this is not the limit. Today, for example, an interesting new product has appeared on the market - an ultrasonic washing machine. Actually, this is not a machine, but a small activator that is placed in the middle of a container with a washing solution and textiles. A piezoceramic emitter excites ultrasonic vibrations, which form a huge number of microscopic bubbles in the solution, which disrupt the adhesion of contaminated microparticles to the fibers of products and facilitate their removal by surfactants of washing powder or soap. Thus, the fibers of the fabric are cleaned from the inside, which allows for high washing efficiency. The quality of washing in such a washing machine is somewhere in the middle between hand washing followed by boiling and washing in an automatic machine with a bleaching function. The amount of laundry is not limited - only the required washing time depends on it. Among other things, ultrasound is quite effective at killing germs. Unfortunately, ultrasound does not know how to squeeze out. Of course, the main advantage of this washing device, which one hesitates to call a “washing machine,” is its small size and power consumption, which is only a few watts. Therefore, such a machine is indispensable for travelers and business travelers.

Galileo. History of inventions. Washing machine:

Before scientific and technological progress began to steadily gain momentum, washing methods and detergents were primitive. The first washing machine radically revolutionized human life and confidently entered people's homes. If you are interested in the history of its creation, you have come to the right place - we will tell you the most interesting moments of the appearance of washing machines.

It is difficult to say for sure who was the first to create a washing machine - in the past, patent offices constantly received applications for registration of devices that made washing easier. They were faintly similar to modern SMA, but they can confidently be called ancestors.

Interesting. A California gold miner created the original washing machine in 1851. This “machine” washed about 10 shirts in one wash. Mules were used as the “engine”. He no longer had to “wash” the gold; instead, he provided laundry services to his colleagues, who paid the enterprising inventor with the gold they found. It is known that the first laundry was opened due to the need for laundry among bachelors. Perhaps this relates to the story of the gold seekers.

Attention! If you're in Eaton, Colorado, visit the Washing Machine Museum, founded by Lee Maxwell. It contains a whole collection of devices from the 20th century. Today you can see more than 600 exhibition items there. The main thing is that they all work, so you can clearly see the principle of operation of each of the machines.

Cars with engine

Washing has changed dramatically since motorized washing machines appeared. Some of them were gasoline, the rest were electric.

The “Thor” model, assembled in Chicago in 1908, entered serial production. The creator of the machine, A. Fisher, was known as the inventor of a unique technology at that time.

In the early 20s of the last century, in the USA alone there were more than 1,300 organizations that launched the production of SM. Not everyone was destined to firmly consolidate their position in the market, so not many have reached this day. One of the “old-timers” of the washing machine market is the Whirlpool Corporation.

The improvement of washing machines continued - all dangerous parts and components were gradually hidden and covered with panels, the appearance of the equipment was increasingly conducive to purchasing it.

Such a “boom” provoked changes in the social structure of society - after the invention of most household appliances, there was no longer a need for servants, and the queues in laundries disappeared, most of them closed. By the mid-50s, 1.4 million units of washing equipment were sold. At that time, the cost of the machine was $60.

It is difficult to say who created the first machine - the history of this technology covers entire countries and too many inventors and entrepreneurs. And it is almost impossible to decide when the first machine appeared - due to the fact that the first inventions bore little resemblance to the current SMA.

Stages of evolution

• 20s of XX century. Wooden tanks have been replaced by metal enameled analogues.
• 30s. At this time, pumps powered by electricity began to be used. A timer was added to the design of the machines.
• 1949 This year the first programmer was invented and the production of the first automatic washing machine was launched.
• 50s For the first time, the function of automatic laundry spinning has been implemented.
• '78. A model with a microprocessor has been created.
• The beginning of the 21st century – integration of SMA into the “smart home” system.

From the early 90s to the present day, manufacturers have been supplementing and improving the design of washing machines, adding options and functions, and unique innovative technologies.

In the 50s, on the shelves of Soviet stores you could choose from two models - “EAYA-2” and “EAYA-3”; these cars were assembled in Riga. The design, like that of other Soviet devices, bore little resemblance to their foreign counterparts - these machines looked more like rockets.

"Vyatka"

Activator SM “Vyatka” went on sale in 1966. The design is indecently simple - a barrel-shaped tank and an engine. In the 16 years that passed between the release of EAYA and Vyatka, nothing has changed except the design and addition in the form of a timer.

Semi-automatic models with centrifuge

“Barrels” with a motor continued to be produced without any attempts to improve them. Reliability was positioned as the main advantage. Models with centrifuges became even more of a “breakthrough” (meanwhile, the Americans were pushing in automatic mode).

The first spinning machine was released under the Siberia brand (a harsh name for a harsh machine).

Slot machines

In the 70s, buyers finally saw automatic cars (20 years later than in the rest of the world). The first prototype was “Eureka,” although it did not reach the level of a machine gun: you had to fill the water yourself. But the laundry was wrung out in the same drum where it was washed.

“Vyatka-automatic” has evolved for almost 15 years, and a lot has changed over the years. They were manufactured under license from the company Merloni Eletrodomestici (Italy). The model already had a couple of programs. This is the only washing machine that did not become a shortage in the Union - it was released during the “stagnation”, and it cost 400 rubles (at that time - decent money).

Interesting! To buy an SMA, you had to bring a certificate to the store stating that the wiring in the house can withstand the load of the “gluttonous” device.

The next car, the Volga-10, quickly lost the interest of buyers, as it was inferior to the Vyatka-Avtomatic and consumed much more electricity.

Modern SMA

In modern models, discrete logic has been replaced by Fuzzy Logic(read more about it in the corresponding article). Its distinctive feature is the mass of parameters that the user can set, as well as information that is read by sensors and reported to the control unit.

In recent developments Fuzzy Logic has been replaced by UseLogic– the system analyzes all parameters of the laundry, determining the optimal washing process. During the mode itself, processes are analyzed, examined and adjusted - this reduces the consumption of resources and detergents. At the same time, the quality of washing and the impeccable appearance of the laundry are maintained.

Sensor Clear Water– development that analyzes water pollution. If the sensor tells the board that the water is too cloudy, the system will automatically initiate an additional rinse.

We can discuss the cars of our time endlessly, but this is a topic for a separate article. And you have already learned the most interesting things about the history of the emergence and development of this industry.

Inventor: James King
A country: USA
Time of invention: 1851

Washing machine - an installation for washing textiles (clothes, underwear, bed linen, bags and other things). The first washing machine was created and patented by the American James King back in 1851. He can be considered the inventor of the world's first washing machine. By the way, it was very similar to a modern car, although it was manually driven.

Since the time when the first washing machine appeared, the process of coming up with inventions of this kind has proceeded at a rapid pace. And until 1871, in America alone, more than 2,000 patents for various washing devices could be counted. Many of them were not suitable for use.

But some specimens deserved special attention. For example, in 1851, one Californian designed a device that washed 10-15 shirts and T-shirts at a time. For this, 10 mules were harnessed, and the man did not waste his strength. The inventor took some compensation for doing laundry and felt pretty good about himself. By the way, this was one of the first public laundries, and such a “washing machine” did not require special care - just feed and water the working mules.

William Blackstone was the first to put a washing machine into mass production; it also had a manual drive. He gave his first car to his wife for her birthday, and soon launched mass production and sold the cars for $2.50 apiece. By the way, the company founded by Blackstone still continues to produce washing machines.

In Europe, the first washing machines began to be produced by the Germans only in 1900. Further improvements in manufacturing technology enabled the construction of the first electrically powered washing machine in 1908.

Thus, the mechanization of labor led to the gradual displacement profession as a laundress, and in 1947 the world's first automatic washing machine was released. The automatic washing machine was developed by designers of two American companies - Bendix Corporation and General Electric. They presented their creations to the world almost simultaneously and can be awarded the title of creator of the automatic washing machine. In the next five to ten years, most washing machine manufacturers of that time introduced their automatic models.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the expansion and improvement of washing machine production has continued to grow and by 1920, about 1,400 companies were producing machines in the United States alone! Most of them only cared about the machines performing their basic functions - all drives and parts were open and there was no talk about any consumer safety was walking. The then little-known company Whirlpool decided to break this foundation.

Whirlpool hires good designers on its staff, covers the entire washing machine with covers, reduces noise, and offers the buyer a choice of several colors. The washing machine is transformed from a scary, clunky device into an elegant household appliance. Soon, competitors followed the leader, and the further technical evolution of washing machines was accompanied by their aesthetic improvement.

The advent of washing machines in the home at the beginning of the 20th century led to mass closures of public laundries due to lack of customers. The boom in washing machines and the appearance of them in every home caused mass layoffs of domestic workers. Affordable mechanization of labor has simply displaced human labor from many households.

The first automatic washing machine in the USSR appeared in 1975 under the name “Volga-10”. It was created at the Cheboksary plant named after V.I. Chapaeva. But already in 1977, this model was discontinued due to the fact that the apartments did not have electrical wiring of the required power.

The “Vyatka-automatic-12″ model, production of which began on February 21, 1981 at the machine-building plant in Kirov, can be considered more successful. Kirov residents bought a license for the production of this equipment from the Italian company Merloni Progeti (modern name Indesit), They built a new building and equipped it with Italian equipment. The model was a copy of the Ariston washing machine.

Today the market offers almost exclusively automated models, with automatic filling, heating and draining of water, with a programmed transition from one operation to another, several washing modes and automatic shutdown at the end of work.

Another interesting new product is an ultrasonic washing machine. Actually, this is not a machine, but a small activator that is placed in the middle of a container with a washing solution and textiles. A piezoceramic emitter excites ultrasonic vibrations, which form a huge number of bubbles in the solution, which disrupt the adhesion of contaminated microparticles to the fibers of products and facilitate their removal with surfactants or. Thus, the fibers of the fabric are cleaned from the inside, which allows for high washing efficiency.

The quality of washing is somewhere in the middle between hand washing followed by boiling and washing in an automatic machine with a bleaching function. The amount of laundry is not limited - only the required washing time depends on it. Among other things, ultrasound is quite effective at killing germs. Unfortunately, ultrasound does not know how to squeeze out.

Of course, the main advantage of this washing device, which one hesitates to call a “washing machine,” is its small size and power consumption, which is only a few watts. Therefore, such a machine is indispensable for travelers and business travelers.

Currently, humanity has come very far in improving the washing machine. It can do its job with little or no human intervention. It is enough that there is cold water and electricity, the housewife can load the laundry in, set the program and do other things around the house or relax, and the washing machine will do everything itself. It is possible to wash very thin laces. Washing a down jacket has also become possible in a modern washing machine.

Modern washing machines are built into kitchen furniture, can have a reduced depth (for small spaces), have a stylish design and different color variations, operate with reduced noise, connect to the Internet and have many other functions.

The first washing machine appeared with the light hand of Nathaniel Briggs from New Hampshire, America back in 1797. The device was a wooden tub with a moving frame. Due to the high labor costs, the invention did not take root.

When did the first washing machine appear?

The washing machine took a thorny path to fame in the vastness of America. But there is no exact answer as to what year the washing machine was invented and who the discoverer was. Several inventors of different devices are fighting for the right to be called such.

Prototype of a drum washer

The first washing machine, which at least somehow resembled a modern drum one, was patented only in 1851 by the American James King. This apparatus had a drum with holes for draining water, mounted on a rotating axis. Linen and soapy water were placed in the drum, but rotation was carried out manually.

The first public laundries opened in the California gold mines in the 1950s. Animals were used to put the mechanism into action. In one wash it was possible to process a large amount of laundry at once.

After the first such successful experience, America was covered with a “washing” wave, and within a few years several thousand patents were issued. No, only a few remained workers, the rest remained on paper.

In 1861, the first mechanical addition appeared to provide spinning. The mechanism consisted of rotating rollers that clamped wet laundry.

Mass production

William Blackstone is also credited with being the first inventor of the washing machine. In 1874, an American designs a new model. It's simple - the “laundress” was developed as a gift for his wife’s birthday. Later, it was this version that went into mass production. The company, founded by an inventive American, still produces washing machines.

Washing machines appeared in Europe only in 1900, when Miele & Cie offered a wooden churn with rotating blades. The European “discoverer” was the same Karl Miele.

Fact. Do-it-yourself washing machines appeared long before patented devices. Such devices worked on large American and European farmlands. The basis was a steam engine, a belt or gear drive was used.

The first electrically powered car

In 1908, the first electrically driven machine appeared. The inventor was Alva Fisher, the car was called Thor. A couple of years later, the Hurley Machine Company took over mass production. The device was equipped with a wooden drum capable of rotating in both directions. There was also a lever for coupling the rotator with the engine shaft.

By 1920, more than a thousand companies were fighting for buyers and offering not antediluvian mechanisms, but compact equipment. Wood has finally been replaced by durable enameled steel. You can now spin clothes in the drum, there are drain pumps and mechanical timers.

At this time, the machines were divided into two types: activator machines with vertical loading and an activator at the bottom, and drum machines - more complex and not so reliable, they were distinguished by gentle washing and water saving.

Despite the innovations and updated appearance of the devices, housewives still had to monitor the progress of the wash, ensuring water supply, drainage, timer switching, etc.

Who invented the machine and when?

The first automated washing machine appeared in America in 1949. At this time, such a profession as laundress disappears; housewives now only need to load washing clothes into the machine and start the process.

The end of the 70s was marked by the appearance of a microprocessor in cars and the appearance of a spin function, although it was too wasteful for that time. Now users can select the desired washing mode. Machines of various sizes appear - depending on the needs of the user.

The last years of the 20th century gave the world the revolutionary Fuzzy Logic system, which allows you to control the temperature and hardness of water, the volume of laundry and the required amount of detergent, and, of course, a lot of program options to choose from.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi. A woman washing clothes in the river. Beginning of the 19th century

Soap, a mixture of fats and alkalis, was known in Sumer and Babylon about 5 thousand years ago. Legend has it that the Latin word sapo (soap) comes from the name of Mount Sapo in Ancient Rome, where sacrifices were made to the gods. Animal fat released when the victim was burned accumulated and mixed with the wood ash of the fire. The resulting mass of rain was washed onto the clayey bank of the Tiber River, where residents washed their clothes, which, thanks to this mixture, were washed much easier.

But even in hot water, which copes with dirt better than cold water, with soap and other detergents, washing remained hard physical labor, and it would be strange if people did not try to make it easier with the help of mechanization. The first primitive prototype of a washing machine was the simple technology of sailors who tied soapy clothes to a rope and lowered them overboard. The sea waves, multiplied by the speed of the ship, coped with the washing quite well. On land, washerwomen used the same principle, washing in fast-flowing streams and rivers.

History knows plenty of all kinds of mechanical devices that stirred laundry and thereby helped water and soap do their job. Even in Babylon, wheels with blades were installed in huge washing vats, which mixed the laundry as they rotated. True, strong men had to rotate these wheels, so such units simply replaced one type of muscular effort with another. In the villages, peasants planed deep troughs from wood that could be rocked like a cradle. Women could cope with this quite well, but the quality of washing was low. Another ancient washing machine was the so-called washing barrel, in which soapy water along with laundry was rotated by a cross mounted on a vertical axis.

D. Teniers Jr. Fabric bleaching.

A washboard is an essential attribute of hand washing.

The first patent for a mechanical washing machine was received on March 28, 1797 by the American Nathaniel Briggs from New Hampshire. This machine was reminiscent of ancient Babylonian ones, and its operation required considerable effort from several people. It is not surprising that this invention was not widely used. In 1851, American James King patented a washing machine very similar to the modern one. It was a tub with a holey cylinder mounted on a rotating axis. Linen was placed inside the tub and a soap solution was poured in, although the drum still had to be rotated manually. But it was this device that became the prototype of drum washing machines.

King’s unit seemed to have opened some kind of gateway: inventions of all kinds of mechanical washing devices poured in one after another in a powerful wave. In America alone in 1875, about 2 thousand patents for such devices were received. However, most of these ideas were unviable and remained on paper, but there were also truly successful ones. Thus, in the early 1850s, the first public paid laundries opened in the gold mines of California. They were equipped with washing machines that were powered by mules and could wash large quantities of laundry at a time. And in 1861, washing machines were supplemented with a mechanical spinning device. It consisted of two rotating rollers, between which wet laundry was passed.

Wooden manual washing machine designed by W. Sellers. 1890

Yet the inventor of the washing machine is usually called the American William Blackstone. Although he was not a pioneer in the literal sense of the word, the model he designed in 1874 as a gift for his wife’s birthday became the first household washing machine to go into mass production. The company founded by Blackstone produces these household appliances to this day. In Europe, mass production of mechanical “washers” was established by the manufacturer of milk separators, Karl Miele. In 1900, his company Miele & Cie adapted a wooden churn with blades inside the body for washing purposes.

It must be said that machines that washed “themselves” appeared much earlier than officially patented ones, and not in the workshops of inventors, but in large farms in America and Europe, whose owners used steam engines for rural work. Instead of turning washing machine handles or harnessing animals, farmers used belt or gear drives. It was not possible to use steam engines in small private houses and apartments, so in cities, steam-powered washing machines were installed mainly in public laundries. In addition to steam engines, more exotic gas and even hydraulic drives, reminiscent of a small water mill, were also used.

The first electrically powered washing machine was patented in 1908 by American inventor Alva Fisher. Two years later, mass production of this unit, called Thor, began by the Hurley Machine Company. The machine was equipped with a wooden drum, which rotated alternately in one direction and the other. At the bottom of the machine there was a lever, which was used to engage the mechanism that rotated the drum with the electric motor shaft. A serious drawback of Fisher's invention was the unsafety of the machine, since all its transmission mechanisms were open.

By the early 1920s, more than 1,000 companies were producing washing machines in the United States. These were no longer industrial units, but compact household appliances that fit well into the interior of even a small apartment. However, in Europe and the USA, in apartment buildings, public washing machines are still sometimes installed in basements.

Laundry. New Hampshire, USA. 1931

Improvements were constantly made to the design of washing machines. In the early 1920s, wooden tanks lined with copper sheets gave way to enameled steel ones. Two main types of washing machines have been identified. The first is an activator with a vertical tank and a flat circle located at the bottom of the activator with protruding radial blades, driven by an electric motor located outside. The second type is drum machines, more complex and less reliable, but still more widespread due to ease of automation, gentle washing, and economical consumption of water and detergents.

In 1924, a machine appeared with a drum designed for both washing and spinning clothes. It was launched on the market by the American Savage Arms Company. In the next decade, machines with drain pumps and mechanical timers were developed. And yet, despite all these improvements, the owner still had to remain close to the machine throughout the entire washing process: opening and closing the water supply valve, setting the timer switch, starting and turning off the engine. The first truly automated drum washing machine appeared in the United States only in 1949, and in Europe two years later. The profession of a laundress became a thing of history, since a person was now only required to load dirty laundry into the machine, fill it with detergent, select a program and press the “start” button.

Woman hanging laundry. Arizona, USA. 1940

In the late 1970s, automatic washing machines began to be programmed using microprocessors. A drying function, which is not very popular due to high energy consumption, has appeared, as well as the ability to select a washing mode depending on the type of fabric. The designers developed machines of various sizes, which made it possible to integrate the units into kitchen furniture.

A real revolution in the production of washing machines was the Fuzzy Logic control system (literally “fuzzy logic”), developed in the mid-1990s. With its help, you can carry out an incredible number of washing options. In addition, a machine equipped with such a system itself controls the water temperature and its hardness, the volume of laundry loaded and the concentration of detergents. Microprocessors can even remember the type of wash most often used by the owner of the machine, and perform this function by default.

In the near future, the washing machine will become an integral part of the so-called smart home, completely controlled by computer systems. Technologies are currently being developed that will give the machine the ability, for example, to independently select the optimal washing mode using touch sensors for the type and color of fabric, as well as access the Internet and contact a service center in the event of a malfunction.

If there is not enough space in the house

The smallest automatic washing machine is produced by the Swiss company Eurosoba. The machine weighs only 36 kg, fits easily under the sink, and has a service life of 15 years.

For owners of not just small, but micro-sized apartments with tiny bathrooms, a washing machine of the wash-up system was developed, the essence of which is that the machine is located above the toilet, saving space, and the water used during washing is used to flush away sewage. What to do if the toilet is used more often than washed, the creators of the model are silent.

A special powder is produced for washing in washing machines.