Laundry Coppers

[mrboilwash]

I was wondering how the presence or absence of those wood and coal fired boilers in an area still has an influence on today`s washing habits.
In Germany there was no house without one.
The copper was usually located in the basement but separate wash houses existed too and in many cases it also provided hot water for the weekly bath when central hot water and even bathrooms were still a rare luxury.

The procedure may have varied but it was usually like this:
At first you`d soak clothes over night in a solution of cold water and washing soda.
Then on Monday morning (LOL) you`d treat all remaining visible stains with a brush and soap on a wooden wash table before things finally went into boiling suds in the copper because you didn`t want to set stains by skipping the first steps.
At first whites and lights of course then came the darks and when the water has cooled off a bit more it was time to use those precious suds again for the non color fast items.

One of my grandmas moved into a brand new block in 1963 and they still had a shared wash room in the basement with a copper and a wash table. By the end of the 60`s it did not get much use anymore as most tenants by then had an automatic in their kitchens or bathrooms.

So, how was laundry day in your country decades or even a century ago?
I think if clothes have never been boiled clean in an area it explains why washers without heaters that rely only on central hot water or even cold water exist whereas in other areas they`d never see acceptance even in today`s energy crisis.
Seems to be a cultural thing.

 

[launderess]

Housewives or anyone else doing domestic laundry were advised that boiling was no longer necessary once semi or fully automatic washing machines arrived.

Few homes in USA had "coppers" for boiling wash; rather water was boiled in vessels of various sizes either on a range or outside.

Most wash boilers sold in USA and IIRC Canada by 1800's or so were things like this:

https://www.bargainjohn.com/product/country-store-boiler-original-paper-label/

https://sagtikosmanor.org/laundry_giftshop.html

Their shape was designed so fit on top of ranges or laundry stoves that were heated by wood or coal.

Just to clarify a few things: on both sides of pond boiling (or high temperature) bath took place for white and colourfast items that had been pre soaked, then washed. Boiling was third in that it helped remove any remaining soils/stains (thus lessen need for more scrubbing), and also helped keep soap in solution.

In Europe boil washing became even more famous after introduction of Persil soap powder. Addition of sodium perborate (which only really becomes active at temps > 140F) gave whitening and stain removal properties to laundry. This was important in Europe as there was long a horror towards "eau de Javel" (aka chlorine bleach).

Difference between American and European wash days began with fact many homes in former started getting piped indoor hot water. Until safety and other issues prevailed one could get hot water from taps here at temps of 140F to 180F, thus no need for "boil" washing.

In USA for someone using a wringer washer for whites things went like this:

Pre-soak or wash laundry in cool or warm water.

Wring laundry out of pre-soak water then wash (in machine) with tap hot water or if not available water that had been boiled on a fire or range.

Wring laundry out of hot wash water into hot or warm rinse water (first), continue rinsing in hot or warm rinse water twice or more until water was clear; then rinse again in cool or cold water (perhaps with bluing), wring again, then onto line.

https://sagtikosmanor.org/laundry_giftshop.html

 

[launderess]

These laundry manuals from late 1800's through early 1900's pretty much spell out how things were done in regards to "boiling" washing.

https://www.google.com/books/editio...boil+wash+laundry&pg=PA48&printsec=frontcover

https://www.google.com/books/editio...&dq=boil+laundry&pg=PA278&printsec=frontcover

https://www.google.com/books/editio...&dq=boil+laundry&pg=PA121&printsec=frontcover

It should be noted there was much conflicting advice regarding boiling of laundry. Some told housewives it wasn't necessary if things had been washed properly in warm or hot water. This and or boiling wasn't necessary every wash day.

In USA answer to "wonder" soap for wash day wasn't Persil, but Fel's Naphtha and other soaps that contained some sort of petrol.

https://www.google.com/books/editio...=boil+laundry&pg=RA1-PA45&printsec=frontcover

These were early detergents of a sort in that petrol is quite a good solvent. More to point for laundry purposes you didn't need to boil wash things when using naphtha (high temperatures cause the substance to evaporate).

 

[launderess]

Victorian boil washing was quite a lot of work.

 

[launderess]

Whether they know it or not most Europeans still cling to old ways of washing.

Using washing machines that self heat water, and thus can go from cold to hot or even boiling mimic ways of old. Instead of pre-soaking or pre-washing in cold or warm water, then washing in hot and maybe possibly boiling, European washing machines can simply take a load of wash through all those steps automatically.

OTOH American domestic laundry habits began taking a turn for worse with widespread use of automatic washing machines. Fewer and fewer bothered to pre-soak or pre-wash laundry. Instead things often were bunged into washer which was started with hot water. That was and is a recipe for "cooking" protein and other soils into fabrics.

By not pre-washing or pre-soaking another cardinal wash day sin is committed; washing laundry dirty water. Mind you if things aren't badly soiled this may not be an issue, but still.

Americans largely were not bothered by any of this due to copious use of chlorine bleach, that substance hides a multitude of wash day sins.

Ahh the old days...



Meanwhile Henkel was still pushing old way of doing things with German wash trinity:

Henco - basically sal soda for pre-soaking

Persil - soap powder with oxygen bleach and silicates

Sil - IIRC sodium perborate and silicates to rinse laundry after washing.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The copper boiler was mentioned in Dickens' Christmas Carol when the Christmas pudding is mentioned as being wrapped in a linen and was singing in the copper.

 

[gizmo]

My dad was a carpenter and built our family home in 1958/59, well before I was born. That home had its own laundry room, as was normal at the time in Australia. (Concrete laundry tub, washing machine didn't arrive for a couple of years...)

 

Australia had state Housing Commissions, they built large scale housing developments, mostly detached single houses on quarter acre or slightly smaller blocks in outer suburbs, plus some high rise apartment blocks in inner city suburbs. They also built big housing estates in areas that had a lot of workers employed by government-owned industries, such as near power plants and railway train factories. My Dad worked briefly in building some of these homes, which were built to be cheap above any other consideration. I think this would have been late 1960s?

 

I remember Dad saying he was annoyed that this government housing still had external laundry rooms with wood fired or electric coppers instead of internal laundry rooms with a washing machine space, he thought it was a miserable government policy to provide such out-dated facilities, almost a way to"punish" the poor for requiring government provided housing.