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Clothes washing machines do seem to be one of the unmitigated "goods". Machines use less water, less energy, are gentler on clothes. Reportedly, manual clothes
by gascan 9y ago
Clothes washing machines do seem to be one of the unmitigated "goods". Machines use less water, less energy, are gentler on clothes. Reportedly, manual clothes washing is also very hard on the body- physically laborious combined with scalding water and caustic chemicals. There was some article here on HN a little while ago in which the authors were surprised that women of decades past voted the clothes washing machine as the single greatest invention & engine of their emancipation, instead of planes or semiconductors or medicine or-
By all means though, gardening, cooking food, human-powered travel, repairing & making things of all kinds, etc I do believe can have great value.
- skookumchuck 9y agoThe sewing machine was also a great emancipator of women.
- gascan 9y agoYes, now thinking about it I think they had been asked about inventions of the 1900's.
- contingencies 9y agoI don't think machine washes are gentler on clothes. Maybe gentler than the traditional whack-against-a-river-rock technique, but certainly hand-washing is generally less physically abusive than a machine wash, in my experience.
- jdietrich 9y agoAmericans still inexplicably prefer the top-loading washing machine, rather than the front-loading type that dominates the market in nearly every other developed country. The agitator in a top-loader makes mincemeat out of delicate items, versus the much more gentle lift-and-drop action of a front-loader.