RESEARCH IN THE LAUNDRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 246, 18 October 1927, Page 6

RESEARCH IN THE LAUNDRY.

There are no limits to research work in higher branches of learning. The research laboratories of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are taking the family washing (says the "Christian Science Monitor"). Through the findings of applied chemistry, Professor Robert P. Russell has already developed processes of laundering that will make clothing and household linen wear longer and look better. Collars that will wear nine months instead of six, sheets that will last four years instead of two, wash dress materials, table cloths, and other linens whose durability has been greatly extended —these are some of the results already achieved at Technology through improved methods of washing. Research was started more than two years ago under the direction of Professor Russell, assistant director of the laboratory, to meet a demand from laundry operators for technical investigation of fundamental problems of their business. Standard bundles of clothing and linen were sent to various laundries. After repeated laundering the fabrics were tested in the laboratory for strength, colour and feci. Research in processes for laundering collars, of which hundreds were submitted to tests, resulted in new methods that have increased the average life of a collar from six months, under old methods, to nine months or more by the new. Investigation of collars included a study of the peculiarities of different men. It was found that even when the same kind of collar was used and the collars washed in the same laundry, collars worn by one individual would last three times as long as those worn by another. In determining the amount of damage caused in wearing the collar, tests disclosed that a collar that was not worn and was simply washed over and over again could be sent to the laundry 30 times. Study of 23 laundries co-operating in the research revealed the great contrast between the washboard, tub and household ironing board, and modern laundry machinery. It was found that in the average plant it takes about an hour and 15 minutes to run 250 pounds of clothes through the washer. Where our grandmothers used one or two changes of water, the modern laundry washes in 11 waters, including three complete changes of soap and a number of rinses. Here is an example the Auckland University College might follow.