Bay Harbour: February 23, 2022

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Treasures from the past:
A short history of ironing
THE PRACTICE of using an
application of heat to smooth
fabrics goes back many centuries
– in China, as early as 1 BC,
metal pans filled with hot coals
were used to remove creases and
wrinkles. In Northern Europe
sleek (or slick) stones, glass or
wooden devices were used for
the same purpose.
“. . . shee that wanteth a sleekestone
to smooth hir linnen, wil
take a pebble . . .’’ (a woman with
no sleekstone to smooth her linen
will use a pebble) – John Lyly,
Euphues and his England, 1580.
A set of laundry
irons in a hinged
wooden box. It
includes four irons
and two handles.
One iron is
missing. The maker
was the Enterprise
Manufacturing Co,
Philadelphia, date
unknown.
Baden Norris
holding two
laundry irons.
Wednesday February 23 2022 Bay Harbour News 11
Flat irons or sad irons were
first made by blacksmiths in the
Middle ages, (‘sad’ coming from
Middle English, meaning ‘solid’,
as they were made of cast iron)
to keep a Lord and Lady looking
sharp. By the late 19th and early
20th centuries, a well pressed
outfit denoted a social status
desirable to many. There were
many different types of flat iron,
heated by either fire, charcoal,
kerosene, ethanol, whale oil, natural
gas, carbide gas (acetylene,
as with carbide lamps), or even
gasoline.
This set of irons from the museum’s
collection tells us a number
of things about the history of
ironing technology. As flat irons
heated on a fire did not hold
their heat indefinitely, a laundress
(sic) required more than
one in order to have one heating
whilst another was in use. They
were heavy and bulky, weighing
anywhere from 2-4kg; originally
with metal handles, they often
caused scalds and burns.
Hence it was that in the early
1870s, an inventive young American
woman, Mary Florence
Potts, designed and patented
the detachable wooden handles
that you see in these examples.
Her sensible inventions were exhibited
at the 1876 Philadelphia
Exposition World’s Fair and the
1893 Chicago World’s Fair and
became the most popular heavy
metal irons in North America,
Europe and as far away as the
South Pacific.
Advances in ironing technology
continued in the ensuing
decades – the electric iron was
patented in 1882 by Henry W.
Seeley. This was a significant
breakthrough but it was still
difficult to control the heat –
thermostatically controlled irons
were available from the 1920’s.
Electrically charged steam
irons, similar to contemporary
designs, became popular in the
1940s, the original concept credited
to Thomas Sears.
At the same time, many modern
fabrics (developed in or after
the mid-twentieth century) such
as polyester and nylon do not
require ironing at all, and what
was once heavy and sometimes
dangerous work is now light,
quick and safe.
The second photo shows the
Museum’s founder, Baden Norris,
holding two other irons from
the collection.
Te Ūaka The Lyttelton
Museum has a number of
different irons which are
viewable on the website,
however nothing like the 1300
items in one of the largest
international iron collections,
held at Gochsheim Castle near
Karlsruhe in Germany.
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