Mangle
A mangle is a roller machine that squeezes water out of washed cloth; the hand-cranked kind was a fixture of 19th-century wash days.
A mangle is a machine that squeezes water out of washed cloth, or smooths it, by passing it between two rollers. In nineteenth-century British households the hand-cranked upright mangle was a standard part of wash day.
How did a mangle work?
A learning resource built on a weaver's cottage describes the household version. Washed and rinsed clothes and bed linen were fed between two rollers, one above the other, and the handle was turned to pull them through. The water squeezed out ran into the washtubs below to be reused. The gap between the rollers could be adjusted, and a folded sheet might go through several times.
Mrs. Beeton, writing in 1861 for large households, treats mangling as a finishing step after washing and drying. It is, she says, simply passing cloth between rollers under considerable pressure, and she reserves it for sheets, towels and table linen without folds. Body linen and anything gathered went to the iron.
Why does the mangle matter to laundry history?
It saved labor, and people said so. In 1802 a correspondent proposed having one made for Thomas Jefferson's household, writing that it "saves Labor and Tireing and makes Linen look considerable Better than Ironing."
It was also heavy, risky work, often given to children. A history of laundresses in Brighton notes that children turned the mangle and that mangles were used with no safety guards.
Sources
- Victorian clothes mangle. MyLearning (image: Colne Valley Museum)
- Domestic life in a 19th-century weaver's cottage: Washday Monday. MyLearning
- The Book of Household Management (Mrs. Beeton, bound edition 1861), paras 2387-2388. Project Gutenberg #10136
- Brighton women's history: laundresses. Brighton Women's History
- Laundry (Monticello encyclopedia). Thomas Jefferson Foundation
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