Irons

One of the clearest memories from my childhood is sitting and doing homework while my Mom stood by doing the ironing.  Despite that wonderful memory one of the things I most hate to do is iron.  In any case, ironing has been around for a long time; however, it is unclear when people started pressing their cloth smooth.  There have been many varying styles and types of irons over the ages all achieving the same purpose.  Essentially, ironing is using heat and weight to loosen the ties between chains of molecules existing in polymer fiber materials.  When the fibers are stretched and cooled, the fabrics retain their shape.  We have great examples of flat irons, or sad irons, in the Virgil and Thelma Linam Collection here at the Western Heritage Museum Complex and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Flat irons like ours are a relatively new invention.  The Chinese were the first known culture to use hot metal for ironing a thousand years ago according to www.oldandinteresting.com.  During the same time, European cultures were using glass, stones, and wood for smoothing cloth.  The Vikings were known to use round, glass linen smoothers that were not heated.  More modern glass smoothers had handles and could also be made of marble or hard wood.  These were being used even after the introduction of metal irons.  If you were rich in the Middle Ages you could afford to have your linens pressed with rollers or stretched on a large frame.  For more modest budgets, you would press your linens with mangle boards and/or a rolling pin.  Late in the Middle Ages, blacksmiths started forging flat irons made of metal that would be heated by a fire or stove (oldandintersting.com).  Flat irons, or sad irons (sad from Old English meaning “filled” or solid) had handles you had to grip with a rag or sometimes they were made of wood and eventually the handles were removable to keep them cool (patented in the US).  An effective ironing system with a flat iron required at least two irons, one to use and one to keep warm.  They had to be kept clean, sand-papered, polished, and away from burning fuel.  Beeswax was used to keep irons from sticking to starched cloth.  Another style includes an iron where hot bricks or coal were placed into a container on the iron giving it a consistent heat for a longer period of time.  Electric irons were then invented in 1882 by Henry W. Seeley.

Once again, I am reminded how lucky we are to live in the age we do.  As bad as I am at ironing I can’t imagine having to use a flat iron (or two).  So next time you’re ironing remember that what we may consider as a simple appliance has a long and complicated history.  You’re a part of history and making history.  You never know what appliances will evolve into or be created in a few years.  Come to the Western Heritage Museum Complex and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame to see what life was like back in the pioneer times.