Hi all, This is actually a subject I've found very interesting in the last two years, and have been casually studying. Anyone similarly interested should check out a book called "The Country House Servant" by Pamela Sambrook under the auspices of the National Trust: http://www.amazon.com/Country-House-Servant-Pamela-Sambrook/dp/075092988X/
So the terminology issue comes down to the fact that the actual apparatus for "mangling" and the tools of the laundress' trade changed a lot during the Industrial Revolution. In the time period mentioned, a lot of larger households would fold washed items into specific patterns, place them on some coarser linen, and roll that onto a large wooden roller. In larger households, several of these wooden rollers would go onto a table, a large weight would be applied on top, and the whole kabob would be rolled back and forth to squeeze out as much water as possible. (In fact, you can sort-of see a picture of one of these "great mangles" on the cover of the book I just linked to, above.) This often took the place of ironing, because linen, especially when wet, takes a nice crease and keeps it, which is why items were so carefully folded before being placed on the fabric runner. I also highly encourage everyone interested in the history of laundry to check out this site: http://www.oldandinteresting.com And specifically these sections: http://www.oldandinteresting.com/box-mangles.aspx http://www.oldandinteresting.com/mangle-boards.aspx http://www.oldandinteresting.com/antique-irons-smoothers-mangles.aspx Cheers! -Laura (lurker extraordinaire) Message: 3 Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:38:40 -0800 From: "Sharon Collier" <[email protected]> To: "'Historical Costume'" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [h-cost] Washing, irioning, and running repairs - was "an amusing error" Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Yes, I was, because I knew a mangle as a device to wring water out of clothes before drying. However, another person here says there was a rotary iron, also called a mangle. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of landofoz Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 6:55 AM To: Historical Costume Subject: Re: [h-cost] Washing, irioning,and running repairs - was "an amusing error" I think the OP was pointing out the error of the order in which the author described the events of the laundry... Denise B _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
