Owen Young, a farm boy who grew up to become the Chairman of General Electric, explained to his biographer what life had been like for a farm wife on Wash Day, prior to electrification:
"[Young] drew from his memory a vivid picture of its miseries: the milk coming into the house from the barn; the skimming to be done; the pans and buckets to be washed; the churn waiting attention; the wash boiler on the stove while the wash tub and its back-breaking device, the washboard, stood by; the kitchen full of steam; hungry men at the door anxious to get at the day’s work and one pale, tired, and discouraged woman in the midst of this confusion."
Bruce Barton of the BBDO ad agency wrote an ad in the 1920s showing a woman bent over a manual washing machine with the headline: "Any woman who does anything which a little electric motor can do is working for 3 cents an hour!"
Women's time is more valuable than the low cost of electricity. I think it was an effective ad!
I hadn't considered the benefits of polyester and similar synthetics before. They were definitely tainted with the terrible design aesthetics of the '70's and now they're the fibers of choice for fast fashion. But being able to wash a polyester suit with the rest of the laundry must have been a big benefit. When I need to wash my favorite linen suit, I take it to the fancy dry cleaners, ask them to wash it with water and then ask for extra starch. It takes several days and it's not cheap, and I wouldn't dream of trying to wash one of my wool blend suits myself. I knew someone in college who specifically bought polyester and nylon clothes because she could throw white and dark clothes in the same load and knew they wouldn't bleed. I was appalled, but I also own more than one pair of linen pants.
Owen Young, a farm boy who grew up to become the Chairman of General Electric, explained to his biographer what life had been like for a farm wife on Wash Day, prior to electrification:
"[Young] drew from his memory a vivid picture of its miseries: the milk coming into the house from the barn; the skimming to be done; the pans and buckets to be washed; the churn waiting attention; the wash boiler on the stove while the wash tub and its back-breaking device, the washboard, stood by; the kitchen full of steam; hungry men at the door anxious to get at the day’s work and one pale, tired, and discouraged woman in the midst of this confusion."
Bruce Barton of the BBDO ad agency wrote an ad in the 1920s showing a woman bent over a manual washing machine with the headline: "Any woman who does anything which a little electric motor can do is working for 3 cents an hour!"
Women's time is more valuable than the low cost of electricity. I think it was an effective ad!
i've been running a series of posts on Technology in 1925..the fourth post in the series is Domestic Technologies and Municipal Infrastructure
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/74391.html
Wonderful column. A reminder of the weakness of good-old-days nostalgia.
I hadn't considered the benefits of polyester and similar synthetics before. They were definitely tainted with the terrible design aesthetics of the '70's and now they're the fibers of choice for fast fashion. But being able to wash a polyester suit with the rest of the laundry must have been a big benefit. When I need to wash my favorite linen suit, I take it to the fancy dry cleaners, ask them to wash it with water and then ask for extra starch. It takes several days and it's not cheap, and I wouldn't dream of trying to wash one of my wool blend suits myself. I knew someone in college who specifically bought polyester and nylon clothes because she could throw white and dark clothes in the same load and knew they wouldn't bleed. I was appalled, but I also own more than one pair of linen pants.