ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the alternative hypotheses of time substitution and drudgery avoidance as triggering factors behind the diffusion of washing machines. It explores the demand for domestic servants and the use of commercial laundries as alternative means for ensuring cleanliness. The chapter looks at the transition in the domestic production of cleanliness from ‘Blue Monday’ to the fully automated washing machine. It presents changes in the domestic production of clean clothes from the perspective of the technical equipment used. The presentation covers technical advances in laundry washing from the middle of the nineteenth century onward and is mainly confined to the United States. At the beginning of the mechanization of laundry washing, very distinct technical approaches were applied, all of which appear to have targeted a reduction in physical effort. One device that showed some resemblance to the modern washing machine was the rotary-type washer, invented in 1850, which included a large drum that could be turned by a handle.
