It’s a Hand Crank Clothing Wringer!
The life of women changed significantly with domestic design innovations of the 1950s and 60s, with access to time- saving devices like washing machines. With the advent of washing machines, fridges, kitchen whiz’s and hills hoist to name a few, the lives of housewives of the 60s was vastly different to their mothers.
Washing was the worst household task and using a wringer like the one pictured above, was one part of the laborious steps in the process of washing clothes and linen. It was also the task that had the least innovation and mechanisation in the 1800s and early 1900s. A range of ingenious devices were offered to alleviate the burden of cooking and sewing it was only with the spread of electric washing machine ownership that the work involved in ‘doing the wash’ change significantly. Even then traditions like washing on Monday, after Sunday the day deemed for rest, continued.
Credit: powerhousemuseum.com
