How Do Semiautomatic Washing Machines Work?
Development of Washing Technology For thousands of years, people washed their clothes by beating them against rocks. Fortunately, we live in the era of technology and we can just throw loads of shirts, pants, and bedding into a machine and turn it on—maybe 5 minutes of work to wash laundry that would have taken hours of hard labor to just partly clean 200 years ago. Though this is hotly contested, the Vatican newspaper has even recently declared that the washing machine did more to liberate women than any other development in the 20th century, including the pill and the right to work. But do you ever stop to wonder exactly how it works? What is it that a washing machine does that gets your clothes so white and bright? Sure, there’s that great new detergent and stain remover, but it’s the washing machine that really does the trick. One type of washer you might not have heard of is the semiautomatic washing machine, which combines the portability of old methods of washing clothes with
