New Website Devoted To Ironers (aka "Mangles")
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58limited
Well-known member
Neat site, I'm glad someone went to the trouble to put this info on the web. Now I just need to find a good mangle...
There is a link to a good movie on how to use mangles. It was produced by Ironrite in 1946. It begins by describing the drudgery of housework and the results of such work: the housewife can lose her looks, health, get a bad temperament, etc.
There is a link to a good movie on how to use mangles. It was produced by Ironrite in 1946. It begins by describing the drudgery of housework and the results of such work: the housewife can lose her looks, health, get a bad temperament, etc.
whirlcool
Well-known member
That's a nice site. It looks like somebody has started a business based on Ironrite's. Look at this auction in the link.
We'd love to have an Ironrite, but we don't really have the room for one yet, plus most of the things we iron are clothing rather than flatwork like sheets, tablecloths, etc.
Most of the ironers I see are up in the north or the west. They didn't seem to catch on in the south. I wonder why?
What caused the demise of ironers?
We'd love to have an Ironrite, but we don't really have the room for one yet, plus most of the things we iron are clothing rather than flatwork like sheets, tablecloths, etc.
Most of the ironers I see are up in the north or the west. They didn't seem to catch on in the south. I wonder why?
What caused the demise of ironers?
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58limited
Well-known member
Wow, never seen one like this. Mid-Century modern wood case.
I usually see mangles on craigslist or other local sales sites for under $150.
I usually see mangles on craigslist or other local sales sites for under $150.
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whirlcool
Well-known member
I saw that one in the wood case. It looks as if it could be a bar, or a phonograph. Quite unusual. But that price!
Ironers, Demise Of
Women started working outside the home, thus had less time for housework, and or began sending laundry out/having someone else do it.
Changes in textiles and garments post 1950's when polyester ,"wash and wear", and a whole host of easy care/no iron fabrics come upon the market. Prior to this most everything was mainly cotton,linen or perhaps rayon, and silk.
Have several vintage laundry manuals from all over the world, and you cannot believe what was ironed right up until the 1950's. Flatwork (bed and table linen), house-dresses, aprons, wash-dresses, shirts, blouses, men's under-shorts, bras, and so forth, practically everything but socks that was washed, had to be ironed. It was simply seen as a sign of poor housekeeping for a woman not to have ironed bed linen, or worse, sending her family out into the world each day with unironed clothing.
Americans also began to live much more informally. Cloth napkins and table linen for meals were replaced by paper or easy care polyester blends.
With tumble dryers becoming more the norm in homes than the exeception, it meant less and less ironing.
Ironers in the South:
Oh they were there, maybe because of the heat and humidity they didn't stay as well preserved as those from say the Northeast or Mid-West, but at one time homes from Maine to Californa, indeed much of the UK and Western Europe had the things. Though it seems Germany was perhaps really keen on ironers.
Ironrite ironers were expensive even back in the day, more so because the federal government slapped a special excise tax on them. Indeed all ironers were expensive, and not every housewive or maid took to using them, thinking it was more bother than it was worth. Having a large ironing table and many vintage irons that get very hot, can agree with the later.
Small ironers weren't that great for flatwork, unless it was items like napkins or hankies. Everything else had to be folded once, twice or even three times to fit the width of the roller. Moving long lengths of fabric through an ironer is an art, otherwise one ends up with creases and "cat whiskers", in short a total mess that wouldn't pass for hand ironed to a blind person.
Ironrite's later incarnations, designed to look like furniture were in response to a changing market and homes. Not every woman lived in a house with a large enough kitchen for one of those beasts, or had a laundry-room/basement. So madame could have her Ironrite right in the living room, doing double duty as a table when not in use.
As for only using the Ironrite for flatwork, have recently "discovered" doing shirts on my small Ironrite "890" and it is a treat. Once you get things down it beats doing them by hand.
Because of the two open ends of the Ironrite and "points", one can iron a shirt like "flatwork" for the most part. The shoe is also just the right width for doing shirt backs right up to the yoke from bottom to top, just the way one would when ironing by hand. This includes the various pleats now found on men's dress shirts. Oh and if you like your shirt sleeves creased, well don't worry, they will be!
Women started working outside the home, thus had less time for housework, and or began sending laundry out/having someone else do it.
Changes in textiles and garments post 1950's when polyester ,"wash and wear", and a whole host of easy care/no iron fabrics come upon the market. Prior to this most everything was mainly cotton,linen or perhaps rayon, and silk.
Have several vintage laundry manuals from all over the world, and you cannot believe what was ironed right up until the 1950's. Flatwork (bed and table linen), house-dresses, aprons, wash-dresses, shirts, blouses, men's under-shorts, bras, and so forth, practically everything but socks that was washed, had to be ironed. It was simply seen as a sign of poor housekeeping for a woman not to have ironed bed linen, or worse, sending her family out into the world each day with unironed clothing.
Americans also began to live much more informally. Cloth napkins and table linen for meals were replaced by paper or easy care polyester blends.
With tumble dryers becoming more the norm in homes than the exeception, it meant less and less ironing.
Ironers in the South:
Oh they were there, maybe because of the heat and humidity they didn't stay as well preserved as those from say the Northeast or Mid-West, but at one time homes from Maine to Californa, indeed much of the UK and Western Europe had the things. Though it seems Germany was perhaps really keen on ironers.
Ironrite ironers were expensive even back in the day, more so because the federal government slapped a special excise tax on them. Indeed all ironers were expensive, and not every housewive or maid took to using them, thinking it was more bother than it was worth. Having a large ironing table and many vintage irons that get very hot, can agree with the later.
Small ironers weren't that great for flatwork, unless it was items like napkins or hankies. Everything else had to be folded once, twice or even three times to fit the width of the roller. Moving long lengths of fabric through an ironer is an art, otherwise one ends up with creases and "cat whiskers", in short a total mess that wouldn't pass for hand ironed to a blind person.
Ironrite's later incarnations, designed to look like furniture were in response to a changing market and homes. Not every woman lived in a house with a large enough kitchen for one of those beasts, or had a laundry-room/basement. So madame could have her Ironrite right in the living room, doing double duty as a table when not in use.
As for only using the Ironrite for flatwork, have recently "discovered" doing shirts on my small Ironrite "890" and it is a treat. Once you get things down it beats doing them by hand.
Because of the two open ends of the Ironrite and "points", one can iron a shirt like "flatwork" for the most part. The shoe is also just the right width for doing shirt backs right up to the yoke from bottom to top, just the way one would when ironing by hand. This includes the various pleats now found on men's dress shirts. Oh and if you like your shirt sleeves creased, well don't worry, they will be!
Another problem in the South for major appliances--NO BASEMENTS to keep the unused ones in.when someone bought a new machine in the South-the old one was hauled away rather than pushed aside in the basement.At best the old large appliance would go into the barn or outside shed to rust-rot away.In my area older machines are VERY RARE!
On one of the "Applianceville" DVDs I have there is an Ironrite training video from long ago.After watching that An Ironrite would be a neat thing to have-makes you WANT to press your clothes!Looks like it would be kinda fun to use-"Mighty Machines" for your laundry!
I watched that Ironrite training video. I used to iron shirts on my Ironrite decades ago. What that video does not show is the joy of moving the hot-from-the-iron textiles around in your lap and trying to avoid crushing what you have just pressed, but I admit to having awful coordination. It is warm work, in spite of what they say.
The shoe is an amazing piece of chromed cast iron. The forming board is all Bakelite. It has quite a transmission. The components are very expensive. I used to enjoy looking between the two sections of the shoe to see the glowing electric element.
Some stupid youngsters on the Archives site that hosts the Ironrite instructional video think that ironers were a post WWII appliance when they actually go back decades before that both in homes and industry. It is true that they began falling out of favor after WWII, but they were the one thing that appliance manufacturers had been making in varying sizes all through the war for the military. They could switch from making them for the war effort to domstic sales easily, but selling them was another matter. Women wanted automatic washers which were in short supply. One of the nasty stunts some manufacturers and dealers pulled was that they would not sell someone a washer unless they bought an ironer. Another factor in the evolution of ironing was the appearance of steam irons which eliminated dampening the laundry before ironing. Suddenly, ironing something could be more of a spur of the moment task.
The mother of one of my brother's friends had a more traditional fake wood cabinet Ironrite in the house compared to the style of the one for sale on the ironer site.
The shoe is an amazing piece of chromed cast iron. The forming board is all Bakelite. It has quite a transmission. The components are very expensive. I used to enjoy looking between the two sections of the shoe to see the glowing electric element.
Some stupid youngsters on the Archives site that hosts the Ironrite instructional video think that ironers were a post WWII appliance when they actually go back decades before that both in homes and industry. It is true that they began falling out of favor after WWII, but they were the one thing that appliance manufacturers had been making in varying sizes all through the war for the military. They could switch from making them for the war effort to domstic sales easily, but selling them was another matter. Women wanted automatic washers which were in short supply. One of the nasty stunts some manufacturers and dealers pulled was that they would not sell someone a washer unless they bought an ironer. Another factor in the evolution of ironing was the appearance of steam irons which eliminated dampening the laundry before ironing. Suddenly, ironing something could be more of a spur of the moment task.
The mother of one of my brother's friends had a more traditional fake wood cabinet Ironrite in the house compared to the style of the one for sale on the ironer site.
the Ironrite does indeed look like a well built peice of equipment-yes the components would be expensive to make-but look how DURABLE they would be!!no cheap throw away plastic there!It also sounds like the shoe could be taken apart to replace a blown heating element-very clever and the Ironrite was at least designed to be serviced or repaired.Todays machines---to the dump or crusher it goes when they break.The Ironrite sounds like a very clever peice of equipment.Thats to bad though that many appliance stores of the early days forced you to buy the presser with the washer.Probably some of those ironers gathered dust in the corner or basement.It would seem to me the hand held and pushed iron was a more labor intensive and less efficient way to press your clothes than the rotary presser.Of course the hand iron would be MUCH cheaper than the Ironrite type device.Since Ironrites were quite massive and heavy-best bet is to try to find one locally-got to be a forgotten one somewhere-I hope- around my area.As I say in my neck of the woods older large appliances are rare.
Hand Ironing vs "Ironer"
Again it depends upon what one is ironing and what sort of results you are after.
Ironers are best for plain and simple embroidered flatwork (bed and table linens), and perhaps things that can be treated as flatwork, such as certain night gowns, night shirts and so forth. While every ironer manual I own gives instructions for how to do everything from A to Z, from what one has heard from "old time housewives", it took lots of skill just to get flatwork down pat, much less things such as shirts.
In Europe ironers were sold for home use that had rollers long enough for large sheets to go with either no fold, or only folded once. Some of the small ironers sold in the United States simply too so much effort to get things right, and until one did there was every chance you would end up with a scorched, creased and crinkled mess.
Problem with ironing anything in layers, is how to feed both evenly as to prevent creases or cat whiskers. Because of the high pressure and heat exerted by an ironer, a crease ironed in really cannot be totally removed without rewashing the item.
What one likes about my vintage Frigidaire cabinet ironer is the folding "board" that allows one to get that damp and then hot from the ironer linens off your lap.
With my Pfaff, and even the Miele ironer, what one has ironed falls to the back, but each still requires feeding into the unit from the front, and the stuff must rest on one's lap. I have a stash of aprons, so it doen't bother me that much, but still.
Where I prefer an ironer over a hand held iron is the former can exert far more pressure than the later ever can, with far less effort. Perfect for bringing out the sheen on damask and other linens.
Yes, Ironrites, just as other vintage ironers are very well built. My Frigidare is a 1950's heavy beast of chrome, metal, porcelain and stainless steel, and is sill going strong. Hate to think about the day it breaks down as cannot find any service information.
Vintage ironers are all over the place, on both sides of the pond. Many owners of B&B's love to find them so they can save on sending laundry out, as do owners of restaurants.
Sadly ironers do end up going to the crusher because they simply cannot be sold or even given away. Persons purchase a home and more often than not find the ironer in the basement or perhaps laundry room, tucked into a corner.
Again it depends upon what one is ironing and what sort of results you are after.
Ironers are best for plain and simple embroidered flatwork (bed and table linens), and perhaps things that can be treated as flatwork, such as certain night gowns, night shirts and so forth. While every ironer manual I own gives instructions for how to do everything from A to Z, from what one has heard from "old time housewives", it took lots of skill just to get flatwork down pat, much less things such as shirts.
In Europe ironers were sold for home use that had rollers long enough for large sheets to go with either no fold, or only folded once. Some of the small ironers sold in the United States simply too so much effort to get things right, and until one did there was every chance you would end up with a scorched, creased and crinkled mess.
Problem with ironing anything in layers, is how to feed both evenly as to prevent creases or cat whiskers. Because of the high pressure and heat exerted by an ironer, a crease ironed in really cannot be totally removed without rewashing the item.
What one likes about my vintage Frigidaire cabinet ironer is the folding "board" that allows one to get that damp and then hot from the ironer linens off your lap.
With my Pfaff, and even the Miele ironer, what one has ironed falls to the back, but each still requires feeding into the unit from the front, and the stuff must rest on one's lap. I have a stash of aprons, so it doen't bother me that much, but still.
Where I prefer an ironer over a hand held iron is the former can exert far more pressure than the later ever can, with far less effort. Perfect for bringing out the sheen on damask and other linens.
Yes, Ironrites, just as other vintage ironers are very well built. My Frigidare is a 1950's heavy beast of chrome, metal, porcelain and stainless steel, and is sill going strong. Hate to think about the day it breaks down as cannot find any service information.
Vintage ironers are all over the place, on both sides of the pond. Many owners of B&B's love to find them so they can save on sending laundry out, as do owners of restaurants.
Sadly ironers do end up going to the crusher because they simply cannot be sold or even given away. Persons purchase a home and more often than not find the ironer in the basement or perhaps laundry room, tucked into a corner.
