The History of Ironing

No-one can say exactly when people started trying to press cloth smooth, but research shows us that the Chinese were using hot metal for ironing before anyone else. They were using pans filled with hot coals that were pressed over stretched cloth. A thousand years ago this method was already well-established.

Meanwhile people in Northern Europe were using stones, glass and wood for smoothing linens and cloths. These continued in use for "ironing" in some places into the mid-19th century, long after Western blacksmiths started to forge smoothing irons in the late Middle Ages.

Ironing continued to be done with hot coals in open metal pans in China, the basic principles no different from an enclosed charcoal iron. Pan irons could be simple or highly decorative. Further west, clay smoothers were sometimes used. Solid ones could be heated for pressing.

Others were designed to hold hot embers like the North African terracotta irons. The ladies preparing newly-woven silk in a 12th century Chinese painting are using a pan iron, in the same way as the ironers in a 19th century drawing.

Although that drawing comes from Korea, Koreans were traditionally known for smoothing their clothes with pairs of ironing sticks, beating cloth rhythmically on a stone support. A single club for beating clothes smooth was used in Japan, on a stand called a kinuta.

In many parts of the world similar techniques were used in both cloth manufacturing and laundering: in Senegal, for example. 

If you would like Iron Maids to do your laundry, ironing or dry cleaning, contact us on 01622 870111 or 01233 779009 or via http://www.iron-maids.co.uk/