In alt.home.repair on Sun, 27 Feb 2005 13:26:01 GMT "Edwin Pawlowski"
posted:


"meirman" wrote in message

OFF TOPIC to the original question, but in 1958, the Whirlpool washer
my mother bought had a sudsmiser option. The washing machine
discharged the wash water to a laundry tub and discharged the rinse
water to a tube that went straight to the drain in the same laundry
tub. Then for the second load of laundry, it would suck up the still
hot and soapy water for the wash cycle, and I guess this time it would
discharge it through the tube.

I haven't seen the Sudsmiser option on any machine other than the one
my mother had.

I remember that. Years ago most laundry was done in the basement or a
laundry room that had a big double tub and the machine emptied into the tub.

We only had a single tub, and I guess I didn't say it but the rinse
water drained out through that tube, surrounded by the wash water in
the same tub. When I was 10 this was very impressive.

Today, you are likely to find the machine emptying into a stand pipe and the
whole thing tucked into a bathroom or closet.

Yeah.

If you go back to the old wringer washer, it was common to do a couple of
batches in the soapy water before draining and rinsing the clothing. Then

Off topic from the off-topic, but in NYC for quite a few years around
the turn of the century, 1900, it was illegal to take a bath. Because
it was so much effort to heat the water on the stove, more than one
person would bath in the same water, and it spread diseases. (They
would hang the tub outside the kitchen window, between the buildings,
when not using it.)

I guess if you had a hot water heater connected to a real tub, baths
were not illegal, but people from the tenements were expected to go to
the public baths, which I think were showers.

the wet stuff was hung outside. Apartments had lines strung out the window
on a pulley.

They still sell that pulley. I mention this because for some reason I
have one, but I can't return it since i don't have the receipt and
don't remember where I bought it.

My mother dried clothes outside until 1966, but we had a yard. And
wooden clothespoles to hold up the clothesline. For 10 years in
Brooklyn I had a washing machine, 2 consecutive ones that I found in
the trash on the street, both easy to repair. But I never found a
drier, so I dried my clothes on the shower bar. Cotton/polyester
dries very quickly. Towels take a whole day, and come out stiff, but
the stiffness goes away the first time they're used.

Meirman
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