askomiele
Well-known member
I've seen a lot of dryers on this site. But some models, out of 1950-1960 has a sprinkler thing. What is it? I can't imagen what it could be? Did we have that in europe as well?
dryer sprinklers
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Then it`s a "reversedryer", ;-)
An automatic sprinklerbottle is part of those dryers.
Seriously, I think it was a device to "rewet" overdryed clothes for easyer ironing
An automatic sprinklerbottle is part of those dryers.
Seriously, I think it was a device to "rewet" overdryed clothes for easyer ironing
Designed to "sprinkle" Madam's laundry with water so she would not have toto the work. Sprinkling dry laundry with water was the way one got dry items damp for ironing. One sprinkled laundry with water, then folded items up and let them rest for awhile. While resting the water would spread throughout the items (one hoped)making them damp enough for ironing. This was how ironing was done for cottons and linens before the advent of good steam irons. Even then most women prefered to dry iron damp laundry for best results.
The other way for sprinkling laundry was to do each item by hand, and there was a huge variety of items designed for this project. They ranged from wisk brooms to bottles with various caps that had small holes. One could even buy just the caps to use on empty soda pop bottles filled with water. As one could imagine, sprinkling the amount of laundry most homes had was a long, tiring process, hence the dryer attachment.
Remember in the good old days most EVERYTHING was made of either cotton or linen and had to be ironed after laundering. Not to iron one's laundry was seen as slovenly and a sign of poor housekeeping. Some women cheated by doing only such items as their husband's shirts,children's and their clothing. Sheets and other linens were either not ironed,or in the case of bed sheets, only the upper third (the part that showed), or just the pillowcases. Sleeping on "rough dried" bed linens was often seen as a sign of poverty because the wonderful heavy cotton and linen bedding simply did not look nor feel "right" without being ironed. Those who could afford it either sent their items out for laundering/ironing or had someone come in to help or out right do all the laundry. Women more chores than money likely would have skipped ironing. Considering it could take three days to complete laundry, you begin to understand why so many women were happy to give up ironing, even after automatic washing machines/dryers became common.
Such attachments died out as less and less ironing was done, especially post 1960's with the advent of permanent press, wash and wear, and more emphasis on wearing/using clothing and linens that did not require ironing.
Launderess
The other way for sprinkling laundry was to do each item by hand, and there was a huge variety of items designed for this project. They ranged from wisk brooms to bottles with various caps that had small holes. One could even buy just the caps to use on empty soda pop bottles filled with water. As one could imagine, sprinkling the amount of laundry most homes had was a long, tiring process, hence the dryer attachment.
Remember in the good old days most EVERYTHING was made of either cotton or linen and had to be ironed after laundering. Not to iron one's laundry was seen as slovenly and a sign of poor housekeeping. Some women cheated by doing only such items as their husband's shirts,children's and their clothing. Sheets and other linens were either not ironed,or in the case of bed sheets, only the upper third (the part that showed), or just the pillowcases. Sleeping on "rough dried" bed linens was often seen as a sign of poverty because the wonderful heavy cotton and linen bedding simply did not look nor feel "right" without being ironed. Those who could afford it either sent their items out for laundering/ironing or had someone come in to help or out right do all the laundry. Women more chores than money likely would have skipped ironing. Considering it could take three days to complete laundry, you begin to understand why so many women were happy to give up ironing, even after automatic washing machines/dryers became common.
Such attachments died out as less and less ironing was done, especially post 1960's with the advent of permanent press, wash and wear, and more emphasis on wearing/using clothing and linens that did not require ironing.
Launderess
thor
Well-known member
Askomiele, I used to have a very old GE dryer, electric, dating from late 1950's, with an extra push control bar located on the left side of the panel, which you had to push while the dryer was in operation to spray the clothes with a pine deodorant. The small bottle with pine concentrated essence was stored behind this push control, and was quite easy to replace. Is this what you mean?
Wow!
Thanks, Launderess. That was a really good explanation--I enjoyed it! :-D
--Nate
Thanks, Launderess. That was a really good explanation--I enjoyed it! :-D
--Nate
Some of the sprinkling devices showed that a lot of thought had gone into designing them. Begining with the 1960 Custom Imperial dryer, Frigidaire offered a clothes sprinkling system on some models that carried water from a compartment on the control panel in a tube that went through the rear drum shaft and terminated in a little plastic bump with a couple of holes for the water to sprinkle out. I have a Montgomery Wards Her Majesty dryer from the mid 60s that uses a very similar system except that the water reservoir is under a little square cover in the left rear part of the top of the dryer like where you fold clothes. GE had, for close to 10 years, an aluminum cylinder about 2 or 2.5 inches in diameter. The length was the depth of the drum. It had little openings on one side and a peg at each end, one spring-loaded. The cylinder was filled with water then set into position along a baffle in the drum. There were little holes at the front and back of the drum by each baffle and the spring-loaded end was fitted into a hole at the rear of the baffle, then the cylinder was pushed back on the spring to allow the front peg to lock into the hole at the front of the drum. In GE's first dryers to offer this, the no heat cycle was called Sprinkle, not Fluff and there was the symbol of a tear-shaped drop of water at the start of the cycle. Maytag Halo of Heat dryers had a white plastic reservoir that was filled then snapped in the place where the dynamic disc lint filter normally revolved. With the electronic control dryers, the Damp setting shut off at something just above Drip Dry so sprinklers soon became redundant. You would swear that Maytag thought people were still using Maytag rotary ironers and, according to the Miele auto dry control, rotary or machine ironers need the clothes to be damper than if they were being ironed with a hand iron.
Some more deluxe Kenmore dryers had a water chamber in the door that could be filled when the door was opened into the customary Kenmore position of lying flat in the opening, hinged at the botton. When the door was closed, the hole in the lower rubber stopper dribbled water out onto the clothes.
For cheaper dryers and idiotic people who had no idea of what they were letting themselves in for, Sears offered a sprinkler ball for the dryer. I brought mine to my desk so that I could describe it properly. It is a sperical object made out of pink plastic and about the size of a honey-dew melon. It has 8 feet (like a spider!)molded into the plastic at the base. They are in the shape of scalene triangles to hold it upright on a shelf or counter. On the bottom half of the sphere are three circles marked progressively from bottom to top: small load, medium load and large load. There there is a heavy equatorial rib that looks like the seam where the two halves are put together and projects about 1/8th inch beyond the side of the ball. This rib also looks like it gives strength and protection to the widest part of the sphere. Above the equatorial rib, are two setbacks at roughly one third and two thirds of the way to the top capped with a flat area each containing a ring of holes. At the very top is a ribbed cap that unscrews to permit filling of the ball. On two sides of the ball in the area between the two rings of holes is the message: USE AIR SETTING ONLY.
Anyone who has dried laundry in a Kenmore or Whirlpool dryer knows that the steel drum has a way of amplifying sound to where a couple of belt buckles or a few pieces of change can sound like the room is full of Flamenco dancers in full fury putting their castanets through an endurance test along with several city blocks' worth of inspired Slavation(sic) Army tambourine players. Now you fill this sprinkler ball with about 2 cups of water and throw it in with a load of fabrics that need to be sprinkled. Within seconds of starting the dryer (on the air setting), you realize that you will have to leave the room, close the door behind you and either go to the other end of the house or outside. If the dryer is in the basement, there is no escaping it in the whole house because the loud crashing noises will travel through furnace ducts to every room. It will sound like you are using the dryer to tumble a large rock and the shudders and loud sounds of impact will cause you to think that it would have made much more sense to damp dry the damn clothes in the first place instead of trying to rewet them.
Those are the main methods of sprinkling clothes in the dryer that I can remember. If I have omitted any, it was probably due to ignorance of their existance or sufficient hatred of a brand that caused me to blot out any memory of it.
One other thing that works quite well is to take a couple of heavy towels, soak them then partially wring them and toss them in with items to be dampened. You can do this with a Filtrator dryer, a condenser combo or water dryer by Maytag or Hotpoint on heat and steam wrinkles out of wool suits. It will restore wrinkled and crushed velvet & corduroy and do everything but make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
Clothes that were damp or dampened were wrapped up in plastic and refrigerated the night before they were ironed. In the South I think it was to eliminate the possibility of the items souring in the warm temperatures, but letting them sit did make them more uniformly damp.
Some more deluxe Kenmore dryers had a water chamber in the door that could be filled when the door was opened into the customary Kenmore position of lying flat in the opening, hinged at the botton. When the door was closed, the hole in the lower rubber stopper dribbled water out onto the clothes.
For cheaper dryers and idiotic people who had no idea of what they were letting themselves in for, Sears offered a sprinkler ball for the dryer. I brought mine to my desk so that I could describe it properly. It is a sperical object made out of pink plastic and about the size of a honey-dew melon. It has 8 feet (like a spider!)molded into the plastic at the base. They are in the shape of scalene triangles to hold it upright on a shelf or counter. On the bottom half of the sphere are three circles marked progressively from bottom to top: small load, medium load and large load. There there is a heavy equatorial rib that looks like the seam where the two halves are put together and projects about 1/8th inch beyond the side of the ball. This rib also looks like it gives strength and protection to the widest part of the sphere. Above the equatorial rib, are two setbacks at roughly one third and two thirds of the way to the top capped with a flat area each containing a ring of holes. At the very top is a ribbed cap that unscrews to permit filling of the ball. On two sides of the ball in the area between the two rings of holes is the message: USE AIR SETTING ONLY.
Anyone who has dried laundry in a Kenmore or Whirlpool dryer knows that the steel drum has a way of amplifying sound to where a couple of belt buckles or a few pieces of change can sound like the room is full of Flamenco dancers in full fury putting their castanets through an endurance test along with several city blocks' worth of inspired Slavation(sic) Army tambourine players. Now you fill this sprinkler ball with about 2 cups of water and throw it in with a load of fabrics that need to be sprinkled. Within seconds of starting the dryer (on the air setting), you realize that you will have to leave the room, close the door behind you and either go to the other end of the house or outside. If the dryer is in the basement, there is no escaping it in the whole house because the loud crashing noises will travel through furnace ducts to every room. It will sound like you are using the dryer to tumble a large rock and the shudders and loud sounds of impact will cause you to think that it would have made much more sense to damp dry the damn clothes in the first place instead of trying to rewet them.
Those are the main methods of sprinkling clothes in the dryer that I can remember. If I have omitted any, it was probably due to ignorance of their existance or sufficient hatred of a brand that caused me to blot out any memory of it.
One other thing that works quite well is to take a couple of heavy towels, soak them then partially wring them and toss them in with items to be dampened. You can do this with a Filtrator dryer, a condenser combo or water dryer by Maytag or Hotpoint on heat and steam wrinkles out of wool suits. It will restore wrinkled and crushed velvet & corduroy and do everything but make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
Clothes that were damp or dampened were wrapped up in plastic and refrigerated the night before they were ironed. In the South I think it was to eliminate the possibility of the items souring in the warm temperatures, but letting them sit did make them more uniformly damp.
Hand vs Machine Ironing
Actually according to my Speed Queen,Thor, Miele, and Pfaff ironer manuals, items ironed via mangle/ironer should be drier than if one was ironing by hand. Items to be ironed via mangle should be just damp enough so one pass through the ironer will dry/iron the material, otherwise items will wrinkle again as they fall in folds after coming out of the mangle. My Spartan, Elna, and Hurley press irons also give the same advice.
My Pfaff ironer, and IIRC the Miele ironers are ventilated on each end, which helps moisture escape,thus keeping the padding/roll cover dry. Older ironers did not have this feature for the most part, thus ironing too many items that were too wet would leave the padding damp, interfering with the ironing process.
With hand ironing one has the benefit of ironing an area, over and over, until it is dry. Even this is not an efficent use of time, and all my vintage laundry books advise housewives not to make the common fault of having their laundry too damp. Linen is the only fiber that needs lots of moisture and really high heat to press/iron well. Cotton does well being damp "as if one took the item in from the line on a poor drying day". as Mary Proctor's book puts it.
When I got my first mangle, did make the mistake of having items too damp, and could not figure out why my ironing looked like something the cat dragged in; not that I've been "schooled", I'm cooking with gas! *LOL*
Launderess
Actually according to my Speed Queen,Thor, Miele, and Pfaff ironer manuals, items ironed via mangle/ironer should be drier than if one was ironing by hand. Items to be ironed via mangle should be just damp enough so one pass through the ironer will dry/iron the material, otherwise items will wrinkle again as they fall in folds after coming out of the mangle. My Spartan, Elna, and Hurley press irons also give the same advice.
My Pfaff ironer, and IIRC the Miele ironers are ventilated on each end, which helps moisture escape,thus keeping the padding/roll cover dry. Older ironers did not have this feature for the most part, thus ironing too many items that were too wet would leave the padding damp, interfering with the ironing process.
With hand ironing one has the benefit of ironing an area, over and over, until it is dry. Even this is not an efficent use of time, and all my vintage laundry books advise housewives not to make the common fault of having their laundry too damp. Linen is the only fiber that needs lots of moisture and really high heat to press/iron well. Cotton does well being damp "as if one took the item in from the line on a poor drying day". as Mary Proctor's book puts it.
When I got my first mangle, did make the mistake of having items too damp, and could not figure out why my ironing looked like something the cat dragged in; not that I've been "schooled", I'm cooking with gas! *LOL*
Launderess
Aren't Cotton,linens making a comback becuase of the toxic chemicals used in Permenent Press items-the Perm Press items can have formeldehyde(not sure of the spelling) which is toxic and a carcinegen.If thats the case dust off your pressing irons and rotary irons--Ironrite-where are you-you may be needed again-it would be neat if someone reintroduced the machines-I might even want to try one!I had never seen the Dryer sprinklers-but remember the sprinkler bottle on my Mom's ironing board-made such a nice smell when she ironed the items-remember it from when I was a small child.
Today's cotton fabrics are no where as "clean" as those from say the 1950's or so. Tons of chemicals such as OBAs,resins and god only knows what else are common. Not to mention the potential for heavy pesticide residue because of the intense way cotton is farmed these days, at least in the United States.
Do not think ironers will make a major comeback anytime soon. Ironing is ironing, and while a machine may make it easier, today's housewives are looking to do less work with laundry, not more. Miele and Pfaff still seem to sell lots of ironers in Europe, but the United States market is mainly owners of BBs,small hotels and others with large amounts of linens to process,but no room/electrical connection for the smallest of commercial ironers.
Do not think ironers will make a major comeback anytime soon. Ironing is ironing, and while a machine may make it easier, today's housewives are looking to do less work with laundry, not more. Miele and Pfaff still seem to sell lots of ironers in Europe, but the United States market is mainly owners of BBs,small hotels and others with large amounts of linens to process,but no room/electrical connection for the smallest of commercial ironers.
And a lot of folks thought synthetic fabrics were bad--Come to think of it the growing of cotton fibers-(LOTS of it grown in my area)alternated with tobacco.All kinds of insects LOVE to eat the cotton balls on the plants-and the plants too-as they are grown.Some of the cotton feild workers complained that the bugs eating the cotton were nasty-the bugs would BITE as the cotton was picked-now I see cotton harvester machines that pick it,clean it and bale it right in the feild.Would like to stop and watch at some point.I suppose if I want my own Ironrite or similar rotary pressing machine-will just have to keep hunting the swap shops and garage sales.One would be kinda neat to try.Iwould have to think with the pesticides and other chemicals-the cotton would have to be REALLY washed before use-and would take LOTS of water and cleaning chemicals.And they say cotton is a NATURAL fiber-It has LOTS of uses and all around and on us!It is useful stuff.And oh yes after the cotton feild were harvested-the farmer would run a large rotary mower or flail mower over the feild to shred the spent cotton plant stalks-and some cotton balls would still be in them-and the result is the mower shredders blow the fibers all over-even see the fibers hanging from power and phone lines!The feild mowers are enormous-would cut a path at least 20ft wide.Three big hammer blade assemblies underneath!
A more cynical reason for 100% cotton fabrics is that cotton is not as strong as polyester. Cotton poly pants will wear forever, but Dockers and the like will show signs of shredding cuffs etc after a season of wear. Work clothes made for endurance are still the cotton/poly blend.
Laundress, I will admit to not being good at ironing, but when I use the Ironrite, if a place is a little too damp, I just pause the roller and steam out the moisture, like in collars and yokes of shirts. The older ironers operate at such higher temperatures that keeping things wetter was one way I had of coping with the heat even when the thermostat was on low. Ironrite did say that proper ironing resulted in dry items, but years ago when a friend was explaining a Miele ad in a German magazine, the auto dry cycle was marked in progressively dryer settings and machine ironing had two settings, one with two water drops and one with one water drop, then hand iron then a couple more settings to shelf dry and one for extra dry. That's why I thought that machine ironing used damper clothing than hand ironing. With the size of the shoe on the Ironrite, a much larger area is being pressed than with a hand iron but adjacent areas often had to be resprayed because they would dry out before I got to them, maybe from the heat traveling through the fabric outside, but near the shoe? I don't have time to play with that toy anymore, so it's either my late 50s modern Westinghouse dry iron or the early 70s Avocado GE steam/spray iron with the still perfect avocado Teflon soleplate. It would spray when new, but that stopped working a decade or two ago, even though I only use demineralized water in it.
Laundress, I will admit to not being good at ironing, but when I use the Ironrite, if a place is a little too damp, I just pause the roller and steam out the moisture, like in collars and yokes of shirts. The older ironers operate at such higher temperatures that keeping things wetter was one way I had of coping with the heat even when the thermostat was on low. Ironrite did say that proper ironing resulted in dry items, but years ago when a friend was explaining a Miele ad in a German magazine, the auto dry cycle was marked in progressively dryer settings and machine ironing had two settings, one with two water drops and one with one water drop, then hand iron then a couple more settings to shelf dry and one for extra dry. That's why I thought that machine ironing used damper clothing than hand ironing. With the size of the shoe on the Ironrite, a much larger area is being pressed than with a hand iron but adjacent areas often had to be resprayed because they would dry out before I got to them, maybe from the heat traveling through the fabric outside, but near the shoe? I don't have time to play with that toy anymore, so it's either my late 50s modern Westinghouse dry iron or the early 70s Avocado GE steam/spray iron with the still perfect avocado Teflon soleplate. It would spray when new, but that stopped working a decade or two ago, even though I only use demineralized water in it.
Washinsheen
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2005
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Sprinkler Bottles
I can remember in the mid 1960s, my grandma in Roswell, NM, used to "take in ironing" for extra money. She had one of those sprikler caps that she'd attach to an empty coke bottle. Sprinkle, iron, sprinkle, iron, etc. And I remember when we got our new Frigidaire harvest gold washer in 1972, it came with a free box of Tide and a sprinkler bottle in the shape of the agitator. That wonderful washing machine is now long gone.....but I wonder if Momma still has the sprinkler bottle....Hmmmm, perhaps a phone call is necessary.....
I can remember in the mid 1960s, my grandma in Roswell, NM, used to "take in ironing" for extra money. She had one of those sprikler caps that she'd attach to an empty coke bottle. Sprinkle, iron, sprinkle, iron, etc. And I remember when we got our new Frigidaire harvest gold washer in 1972, it came with a free box of Tide and a sprinkler bottle in the shape of the agitator. That wonderful washing machine is now long gone.....but I wonder if Momma still has the sprinkler bottle....Hmmmm, perhaps a phone call is necessary.....
Washinsheen
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2005
- Messages
- 182
Oh yeah, in addition to the box of Tide and the sprinkler bottle included w/the Frigidaire washer I mentioned above, we got a free coloring book all about the model of washer that my parents were buying.
Damp vs Damper Dry
Some fabrics iron better with less moisture, others need more.
Cotton irons well when it is slighlty damp, while linen needs to be quite damp, almost wet and ironed with a really hot iron.
Silk dryer than cotton, but still slighly damp. Rayon and most man made fabrics iron best dry with a steam iron.
If your ironing is drying out before you can get to each section, it may not have been uniformly damp, or you are taking too long pfaffing about! *LOL* Seriously, just keep a spray bottle or damp sponge handy to "wet down", any dry areas. This was common enough back in the day, and no harm is done as long as you do not make the area too wet. I like a good plant mister bottle as it makes a nice fine spray. Some cheap spray bottles squirt streams of water or leave huge droplets.
L.
Some fabrics iron better with less moisture, others need more.
Cotton irons well when it is slighlty damp, while linen needs to be quite damp, almost wet and ironed with a really hot iron.
Silk dryer than cotton, but still slighly damp. Rayon and most man made fabrics iron best dry with a steam iron.
If your ironing is drying out before you can get to each section, it may not have been uniformly damp, or you are taking too long pfaffing about! *LOL* Seriously, just keep a spray bottle or damp sponge handy to "wet down", any dry areas. This was common enough back in the day, and no harm is done as long as you do not make the area too wet. I like a good plant mister bottle as it makes a nice fine spray. Some cheap spray bottles squirt streams of water or leave huge droplets.
L.
The plant mister is what I use and it is always near when I am ironing to "erase" ironed in wrinkles and cat faces.
jasonl
New member
Or do like my mom does. Take the stuff out still damp and hang them in the closet. Do you know how much that irks me when I put a pair of pants and the inside is still wet?
But yeah, ironing is drudgery and all attempts to cheat out of ironing is acceptible, including taking almost-dry clothes out of the dryer and hang-drying them.
But yeah, ironing is drudgery and all attempts to cheat out of ironing is acceptible, including taking almost-dry clothes out of the dryer and hang-drying them.
