Utility Room Iron

Let's iron things out

The device we know as the iron has been around since the 17th century. Though the word persists to this day, the modern pressing iron is actually made from aluminum or stainless steel rather than iron. And if you think ironing with modern hi-tech electrical irons is a chore, a brief history of irons reveals a time when to use an iron was literally to take your life into your hands.

History of laundry irons
The first irons were known as sadirons. Sad at that time could also mean heavy, and iron meant a thick slab of very heavy cast iron that would be heated on a stove or near an open fire. Even the handles of sad irons got red hot, resulting in many burned fingers, until Mary Florence Potts patented her cold handle sad iron in 1871. Potts's innovation was a detachable wooden handle.

Iron slabs weren't the only devices used to press clothes. Empty iron boxes known as fuel irons became commonplace toward the end of the 19th century. A fuel iron could be heated with charcoal, gas, alcohol, kerosene, or whale oil. The liquid-fuel iron used a valve-controlled flow of gasoline to feed a burning flame inside the iron. Needless to say, fires and explosions sometimes resulted. Safety hazards aside, a gas iron was lighter than traditional sad irons and kept a modulated temperature for longer periods of time.

Another iron design commonplace during the 19th century was the revolving iron. Operating under the principle that heat rises, a revolving iron permitted its user to rotate the hollow iron body using a thumb latch. All four sides could be used to iron, and sometimes each iron side was designed for a different task such as fluting, glossing, or embossing. Hot metal slugs were often used to heat revolving irons.

History of the electric iron

The first electric pressing iron was actually invented in 1882 by Henry Seeley, but it wasn't until the 1920s that thermostats were used to control iron temperatures. The hazardous liquid-fuel irons continued to be sold alongside electric irons through the 1940s.

Ironing board history

The ironing board is one of those devices that seem too basic to even require an inventor. However, numerous ironing board-related patents have been filed since the mid-19th century for inventions with names such as ironing table, ironing stand, ironing board, and folding ironing table.

The first ironing board

The first ironing board was invented in 1858 by William Vandenburg and James Harvey of New York City. In the literary fashion of the time, the pair used uppercase letters in their patent to describe the proper name of the device as a "new and Improved Ironing-Table, Upon Which to Iron Shirts, Ladies' Dresses, and other Articles."

Using a table to iron clothes was common in the 19th century, but Vandenburg and Harvey's invention was specifically designed for ironing. The ironing board, they wrote, "affords great facility for putting the shirt or other garment upon the board to be ironed and removing it therefrom after it has been ironed, and thus expedites the work and prevents its being rumpled in its removal from the board."

On his own, Vandenburg continued to improve the device, and had filed another six ironing board patents by 1862.

Who invented the folding ironing board?

The first patent filed specifically for a folding ironing table was by MG Briggs in 1868. Other inventors who created variations on the folding ironing board included Henry Soggs in 1869 and J.H. Mallory in 1871.

Some dispute has arisen over who invented the ironing board because of the widespread attribution of its creation to Sarah Boone, an African-American woman who received an ironing board patent in 1892. Boone"s ironing board was designed specifically for sleeves.

However, in a bizarre twist, Boone has been incorrectly championed as the inventor of the ironing board even by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which declared her the inventor of the "predecessor to the modern ironing board" in an April, 2002, press release. This pronouncement has received much attention from America's white supremacist movement, which has used the Internet to debunk Boone's role in ironing board history.