- Nathaniel Briggs wasn't the first person to think of ways of washing laundry by machine. A drawing of an early washing machine appeared in the January 1752 issue of The Gentlemen's Magazine and in 1767 Jacob Christian Schäffer published a design for one in Germany. A British patent was issued in 1791. Briggs was the first to patent the idea in America.
- The earliest designs were basically wooden boxes which had to be turned by hand. It was the 20th century before electric washing machines began to appear. Although Alva J. Fisher is often credited with this invention, there are other patents that pre-date Fisher's, so the actual inventor of the electric washing machine is unknown.
- There is no existing description of Briggs's machine, thanks to the US Patent Office fire in 1836.
- Washing machines account for about 22% of all household Water use. The average family does 8-10 loads of washing per week. The average load contains 16 different items and takes just under an hour and half to be washed and dried.
- About 90% of all laundry is done by women, which has led to historians claiming that the washing machine has done more for women's liberation than birth control. Before washing machines, a woman would have to set aside a whole day just to do the laundry - now she can simply shove it in the machine and go off to work. Washing machines have also been credited with ending the Magdalene Asylums in Ireland, where young women were used as virtual slave labour doing laundry for people. The asylum's economic viability was undercut and they eventually closed. However, it's not all good news. Women may have become more isolated thanks to the washing machine. Before, women would gather at rivers or public washhouses to do their laundry together. Washing machines meant they were stuck at home on their own.
- You can get front-loading and top-loading washing machines. The front load ones are 30-50% more efficient in terms of energy and water consumption.
- British inventor James Dyson claims that washing clothes for 15 minutes by hand gets them cleaner than one hour in a washing machine. This is because hand washing flexes the material, which the machines cannot do.
- Which country manufactures the most washing machines? China. 30,355,000 were made there in 2005. Italy and the USA are the next two biggest producers.
- While the design of washing machines hasn't changed a lot since the early 20th century, improvements have been made. The early ones had two speed gearboxes, and no drum suspension, which was why they tended to "walk" across floors when in use.
- Washing machine in need of a clean? Add a couple of cups of vinegar to an empty washing machine and run a wash cycle without any detergent or laundry.
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