Then the epoch has appeared which may be properly styled the "Happy" or "Golden Age". For many cares and sorrows will be removed at once. The conscientious housekeeper, for instance, whose domestic duties often exhaust her bodily strength, will find her burdens greatly lightened. She has no more to suffer from the intolerable heat of her cooking-stove......In like manner the electric flat-iron will smoothen her linen without fatiguing her. But not only the lady of the house will rejoice; also the poor, hen-pecked husband will be in transports of delight, as it will make his path easier in many ways. The constant complaints he was hitherto obliged to endure, will grow mute forever...
Johanna S. Wisthaler, By Water to the Columbian Exposition, 1894
The ladies engrossed in their ironing brought to mind the one photo I have of myself as a child engaged in some sort of domestic activity. Even at that young age, I knew was something missing....
Where did I go wrong and miss the boat? Could I have grown up to be Joy Mangano? Joy saw the design deficiencies with mops and made a better one. And made a fortune.
Here's a trailer for the recent movie about Joy-more than just mops.
If Joy put her fine brain to work on the challenge of making ironing easier, I'm sure she could come up with improvements....well, actually she did, with her version of the steamer but I found these devices unsatisfactory because all they do is take out the "easy wrinkles", the ones I remove the lazy way by hanging the clothing in the bathroom. Steaming won't make a collar look good, or put a crease down a shirt sleeve, or down a pair of pants. Maybe these robotic machines will do better, although they'd take up a lot of room in the closet.
IEEE Technical Committee on Robot Learning
This one would be the talk of the neighborhood. It's a German invention which blows air into the clothing to dry and iron it. Sells for 850 pounds in England. My cats would hate it!
Tubie - dries and irons a shirt in 7 minutes.
I suggest science/designers/ inventors should forget about improving the ironing process and instead, concentrate on creating totally wrinkle-free fabrics. I for one will only be satisfied when the iron is but a faint quaint memory like the buggy whip! Goodbye and good riddance.
Grab your hairnet and glide over to Sepia Saturday for more smooth stories.
