Before the middle to late twentieth century, washing the laundry was hard manual work typified by this wash-day appliance… a wash board. It’s about two feet high and was used with soap as a rough surface against which to rub the dirty clothes, get a good lather going and remove the dirt engrained in the fibres of the cloth.
The frame was made of deal, a good wood for prolonged and frequent immersion in water, while the corrugated IMEs of the board was made of aluminium. With the possibility of snagging the cloth on occasional splinters in the wood and the wear resulting from rubbing against the corrugations, you wouldn’t want to wash any fine fabrics with it You would also get very wet in the process so you wouldn’t want to wear any finery while doing it!
However, it was good for linens and coarse cottons and general work wear - the equivalent perhaps of a boil wash in a more modern machine. Not that you’d need that temperature with modern detergents. When using a bar of soap – I remember them usually being green and labelled Fairy – it was at least better than bashing clothes against rocks in the local stream!
Another use of the wash board was as a musical instrument as I’m sure anyone who remembers Lonnie Donegan and the Skiffle era of the fifties and early sixties will testify. Placed between the legs and played with thimbles on the end of each finger, it worked well as a cheap and cheerful percussion section to the a skiffle group.
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