Box mangle

The box mangle is said to have been invented in the 17th century. It consisted of a heavy frame containing a large box filled with rocks, resting on a series of long wooden rollers. Washing and rinsed laundry was carefully laid flat on a washed and rinsed sheet and the sheet was then wound round one of the rollers. When the rollers were filled, two people pulled on levers or turned cranks to move the heavy box back and forth over the rollers. [ [http://www.discoveringbristol.org.uk/learning_detail.php?sit_id=1&sto_id=800 Picture of box mangle] ]

This was a mechanical version of the hand-held mangle boards and rollers/pins used in many parts of northern Europe. [ [http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/NR/exeres/C7624E5D-0E7A-429D-AE0F-EBC617834A04.htm Mangle board] ]

The weight of the box not only squeezed all the water out of the laundry, it flattened and smoothed it. Flat items, like sheets and tablecloths, usually needed no further ironing.

The box mangle was a large and expensive affair and required a fair bit of labor to operate it. It was most often used by very large households or commercial laundries. In the 19th century new designs made it easier to operate, and before the middle of the century the upright, space-saving type with cloth pressed between two rollers had become familiar.

In the late 19th century the commercial steam laundry replaced the box mangle with the steam mangle, turned by steam power.

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