Washing clothes has been a natural action since clothes were invented. It is natural for people to want to be clean. In the olden days, washing clothes was much more labor than today. People would have to wash the clothes by hand, scrubbing it with soap. Eventually, clothes washer technology developed as a way to reduce the drudgery of this scrubbing and rubbing process by providing an open basin or sealed container with paddles or fingers to automatically agitate the clothing. The earliest machines were operated by man. As electricity was not commonly available until at least 1930, some early machines were operated by a low-speed single-cylinder hit and miss gasoline engine. By the mid-1850s steam-driven commercial laundry machinery was on sale in the USA and Great Britain. In the US there was more emphasis on developing machines for washing at home, as well as machines for the commercial laundry services which were widely used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Because water often had to be carried, heated on a fire for washing, then poured into the tub, the warm soapy water was precious and would be reused over and over, first to wash the least soiled clothing, then to wash progressively dirtier laundry. While the earliest machines were constructed from wood, later machines made of metal permitted a fire to burn below the washtub, to keep the water warm throughout the day's washing. The modern process of water removal by spinning did not come into use until electric motors were developed, before people would just twist and roll the clothes to extract the water.
Because water often had to be carried, heated on a fire for washing, then poured into the tub, the warm soapy water was precious and would be reused over and over, first to wash the least soiled clothing, then to wash progressively dirtier laundry. While the earliest machines were constructed from wood, later machines made of metal permitted a fire to burn below the washtub, to keep the water warm throughout the day's washing. The modern process of water removal by spinning did not come into use until electric motors were developed, before people would just twist and roll the clothes to extract the water.