Dictionary Definition
laundry
Noun
2 workplace where clothes are washed and
ironed
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
From lavanderie. See launder.Pronunciation
Noun
- A laundering; a washing.
- A place or room where laundering is done.
- That which needs to be laundered.
- You've left your dirty laundry all over the house.
Translations
laundering; washing
- Czech: praní
- Dutch: was
- Ewe:
- Finnish: pyykkäys, pyykkääminen
- Italian: bucato
- Polish: pranie
- Turkish: yıkama, çamaşır yıkama
place or room where laundering is done
that which needs to be laundered
- Czech: prádlo
- Dutch: was, wasgoed
- Ewe: nunyanya
- Finnish: pyykki
- Italian: bucato
- Polish: pranie
- Spanish: ropa sucia , lavado
- Turkish: çamaşır
Extensive Definition
- the act of washing clothing and textiles
- the room of a house in which this is done
History of laundry
"Man and woman washing linen in a brook", from William Henry Pyne's Microcosm, 1806. Laundry was first done in streams, letting the stream carry away the materials which could cause stains and smells. Laundry may still be done this way in some less industrialized areas and rural regions. Agitation helps remove the dirt, so the laundry is often rubbed, twisted, or slapped against flat rocks. Wooden bats or clubs could be used to help with beating the dirt out. These were often called washing beetles or bats and could be used on a rock by a stream (a beetling-stone), on a block (battling-block), or on a board. They were once common across Europe and were also used by settlers in North America.Various chemicals may be used increase the
solvent power of water, such as the compounds in soaproot or yucca-root used
by Native American tribes. Soap, a compound made
from lye (from wood-ash) and
fat, is an ancient and very
common laundry aid. However, modern washing
machines typically use powdered or liquid laundry
detergent in place of more traditional soap.
When no streams were available, laundry was done
in water-tight vats or vessels. Sometimes large metal cauldrons
were filled with fresh water and heated over a fire; boiling water
was even more effective than cold in removing dirt. The washboard, a corrugated slab
of a hard material such as metal, replaced rocks as a surface for
loosening soil.
Once clean, the clothes were wrung out — twisted
to remove most of the water. Then they were hung up on poles or
clotheslines to air dry, or sometimes just spread out on clean
grass.
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial
Revolution completely transformed laundry technology.
The mangle
(wringer US) was
developed in the 18th century — two long rollers in a frame and a
crank to revolve them. A laundry-worker took sopping wet clothing
and cranked it through the mangle, compressing the cloth and
expelling the excess water. The mangle was much quicker than hand
twisting. It was a variation on the box mangle
used primarily for pressing and smoothing cloth.
Meanwhile 18th century inventors further
mechanized the laundry process with various hand-operated washing
machines. Most involved turning a handle to move paddles inside
a tub. Then some early 20th century machines used an electrically
powered agitator
to replace tedious hand rubbing against a washboard. Many of these
were simply a tub on legs, with a hand-operated mangle on top. Later the mangle
too was electrically powered, then replaced by a perforated double
tub, which spun out the excess water in a spin
cycle.
Laundry drying was also mechanized, with clothes
dryers. Dryers were also spinning perforated tubs, but they
blew heated air rather than water.
Chinese laundries in North America
In the United States and Canada in the late 19th and early 20th century, the occupation of laundry worker was heavily identified with Chinese Americans. Discrimination, lack of English-language skills, and lack of capital kept Chinese Americans out of most desirable careers. Around 1900, one in four ethnic Chinese men in the U.S. worked in a laundry, typically working 10 to 16 hours a day.New York
City had an estimated 3,550 Chinese laundries at the beginning
of the Great
Depression of the 1930s. In 1933, with even this looking to
many people like a relatively desirable business, the city's Board
of Aldermen passed a law clearly intended to drive the Chinese out
of the business. Among other things, it limited ownership of
laundries to U.S. citizens. The
Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association tried fruitlessly
to fend this off, resulting in the formation of the openly leftist
Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance (CHLA), which successfully
challenged this provision of the law, allowing Chinese laundry
workers to preserve their livelihoods.
The CHLA went on to function as a more general
civil
rights group; its numbers declined strongly after it was
targeted by the FBI during the
Second Red Scare (1947–1957).
Modern laundry
Washing machines and dryers are now fixtures in homes around the world. In some parts of the world, including the USA, Canada, and Switzerland, apartment buildings and dormitories often have laundry rooms, where residents share washing machines and dryers. Usually the machines are set to run only when coins in appropriate amounts are inserted in a coin slot. Those without home machines or access to laundry rooms must either wash their clothes by hand or visit a commercial laundromat.In parts of Europe, such as the UK, apartment
buildings with laundry rooms are uncommon, and each apartment has
its own washing machine.
Right to Dry
Thousands of communities restrict or prohibit residents from using a clothesline. In Florida, "No deed restrictions, covenants, or similar binding agreements running with the land shall prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting solar collectors, clotheslines, or other energy devices based on renewable resources from being installed on buildings erected on the lots or parcels covered by the deed restrictions, covenants, or binding agreements". No other state has so strong a law. Vermont considered a "Right to Dry" bill in 1999, but it was defeated in the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee. The language has been included in a 2007 voluntary energy conservation bill, introduced by Senator Dick McCormack. Similar measures are being introduced in some parts of Ontario as well.See also
Notes
External links
laundry in German: Wäsche (Textilien)
laundry in Modern Greek (1453-): Μπουγάδα
laundry in French: Linge de maison
laundry in Korean: 빨래
laundry in Italian: Lavanderia
laundry in Hebrew: כביסה
laundry in Dutch: Wasgoed
laundry in Japanese: 洗濯
laundry in Finnish: Pyykki
laundry in Swedish: Tvätt
laundry in Walloon:
Bouwêye