Laundry: from streams to streamlined machines The way we were

NOWADAYS, automatic washing machines have taken the pain out of doing the laundry. Clothes still have to be sorted, pegged out and folded or ironed, but that’s not too arduous in our mild climate.

When did people begin to wash their apparel? Neolithic hunter-gatherers no doubt spread their wet or fouled skin clothing out to dry, but laundry first occurred when they settled near water and began to practise agriculture.

Garments made from natural fibres such as flax, cotton, wool and goat hair were worn until they became soiled, when they were taken to rivers and pounded on rocks, rubbed with abrasive sand, stomped upon or beaten with sticks or special wooden implements. They were then spread out on rocks or bushes to bleach and dry. This pattern continued, with a few modifications, for thousands of years.

Roman citizens valued hygiene and employed public laundrymen known as fullones to wash their woollen garments, which were usually trodden in vats. After drying in the sun, the cloth was brushed to raise the nap and whitened artificially.

Laundry was by no means a once-aweek affair in medieval Europe. Garments and linen were used for periods of six weeks or more before being washed by housewives or servants in wooden tubs or chilly rivers.

Stamina and aggression were needed to soak the heavy clothing, beat the dirt out with washing bats, scrub it on boards, whiten it with urine and wring it out at the end of the process. The affluent classes provided their laundresses with soap made from ash lye and animal fat, but the poor couldn’t afford such luxuries. Decorative items and finery such as lace collars and cuffs were washed separately and received more care.

Housewives, soldiers and sailors used these arduous methods at the Cape after the Dutch arrived in 1652, but the women delegated the task to slaves as soon as possible. In the 1730s, German clerk and tutor Otto Mentzel noted that the slave women washing East Indian cottons along the Platteklip Stream had made some adaptations:

“At first, all the washing is placed in the flowing steam and held down by stones until it has become thoroughly soaked. Next, each piece is pounded against a rock so as to knock the dirt out of it, frequent dipping in the stream being resorted to during this process.

“Thereafter soap is rubbed on the articles which are then spread out on the grass to bleach in the sun, care being taken to keep the clothes moist, otherwise they might get discoloured. After a couple of hours, the washing is immersed once more in the stream, and each piece is beaten against the stones to cleanse it of the soap.”

After a final rinsing, the garments were spread out to dry. The result was snowy white underwear and shirts that were fit to wear without ironing.