Cloth Wringer Views

General Goods

Removal of soap and water from the clothing after washing was originally a separate process. The soaking wet clothing would be formed into a roll and twisted by hand to extract water. To help reduce this labour, the wringer/mangle was developed, which uses two rollers under spring tension to squeeze water out of the clothing. Each piece of clothing would be fed through the wringer separately. The first wringers were hand-operated, but were eventually included as a powered attachment above the washer tub. The wringer would be swung over the wash tub so that extracted wash water would fall back into the tub to be reused for the next wash load.

The first United States Patent titled Clothes Washing was granted to Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire in 1797. Because of the Patent Office Fire of 1836, no description of the device exists, and it is not known what kind of washing device Briggs invented. A device that combined a washing machine with a wringer mechanism did not appear until 1843, when John E. Turnbull of Saint John, New Brunswick patented a Clothes Washer With Wringer Rolls. [5]

This photo could be of my parents -- the man even resembles my father. Father could fix anything. We moved to Henderson, Nevada, in about 1946. Henderson was built especially to house workers at a e"war industrial complex,e" and the houses were pre-fabs - moved in and set up on site.The kitchen was designed with a space for a wringer washer like this, beside double sinks - one a deep sink that the washer emptied into.I was only a second grader at the time but I remember it being a big step up from using a scrub board.And of course, clothes line in the back yard.Really have enjoyed the photos this week -- and the updates on the greenhouse. I do hope the workmen placed their feet very carefully around the piping in the concrete floor.

I grew up with a wringer like that, and continued to use one when I was married to my first husband. Many and many a load of diapers went through that machine! Actually, if I could find one now, Io'd buy it. I really like the way they clean clothes, and they doni't use nearly as much water as an automatic.