PART FIVE: TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
932
which the folded linen was placed. Pressure was maintained upon the boards
with the aid of a wooden turnscrew.
During the sixteenth century the mangling board and roller came into
general use. The idea spread from Holland, Denmark and northern Germany;
the word mangle derives from the Dutch and Middle High German mangelen,
which itself stemmed from the ancient Greek word for an ‘engine of war’:
indeed, the later box mangle resembled a mighty weapon. The material was
wrapped round the roller (itself about 50cm (1ft 8in) long), which was placed
upon a flat table. The mangling board (a flat piece of wood about 66cm (2ft
2in) long and 8cm (3in) wide, with a handle on top) and then passed
backwards and forwards over the roller until the fabric was smoothed. This
method produced quite a high standard of pressing and was in use until well
into the nineteenth century. The idea was exported by Dutch colonists,
particularly to North America and South Africa.
The final pressing stage in Europe came with the development of the
mangle which took place during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The
process was an almost dry one. The heavy, cumbersome box mangle was an
eighteenth-century version intended primarily for use in large houses or
communal laundries where there was a great quantity of linen to be pressed.
The mangle was a large wooden box, 2m (6ft 6in) long and 1m (3ft 3in) each
wide and deep, filled with stones. The box was part of a wooden framework
standing on the floor. The damp, clean linen was wrapped round wooden
rollers which were then placed under the box by means of a lifting device and
a crank handle was then turned to make the heavy box trundle backwards and
forwards over the rollers. A flywheel helped to overcome the inertia of starting
the box in motion and there was a system of stops to prevent the box running
off its bed on to the floor.
After about 1850 the box mangle was slowly replaced by a standing design,
smaller and easier to operate, with large wooden rollers turned by a handle. By

the end of the century the mangle had evolved into a handier design with
smaller, rubber rollers; it was then intended to expel water before pressing.
The heated iron, to smooth damp fabric, was introduced in Europe in the
late sixteenth century, mainly by the Dutch who were the leaders in making
decorative brass irons; cheaper everyday models were soon being produced
everywhere by the local blacksmith in iron. The ancestor of such heated
smoothing irons was the oriental pan iron, in use in the Far East since early
medieval times and made to the traditional pattern ever since. This design of
brass or bronze resembled a small saucepan and had a wooden handle: the
pan, containing burning charcoal or coal, was rubbed over the fabric.
Until the emergence of the self-heating iron in the mid-nineteenth century
there were two chief types of heated iron: the box iron and the sad iron. The
box iron (also known as a slug iron and with a variant in the charcoal iron)
was hollow and designed to contain a heated cast-iron slug or burning
THE DOMESTIC INTERIOR
933
charcoal. The slug iron had a gate at the rear to be lifted up for the insertion of
a red-hot slug, the charcoal iron a top plate which was removed to put in the
fuel. Charcoal irons also had top chimneys for the escape of smoke and holes
inserted along the sides to aid combustion (Figure 19.6). The sad iron, or flat
iron, was made of solid cast iron. Several such irons were in operation at once,
two or three heating up on the fire while one was in use. The word ‘sad’
derives from its medieval meaning of ‘solid’ or ‘heavy’.
Using any of these irons was skilled work. The correct heat for the fabric
had to be gauged—usually by spittle or by holding the iron near the cheek. A
charcoal iron was liable to scatter smuts on the fabric from its chimney. It
needed skill, too, to keep several sad irons at the correct heat so that time was
not wasted; a cast-iron heated laundry stove, where irons could be kept hot,
was used for this purpose. Surprisingly the detachable wooden handle was not
introduced for use with sad irons until the nineteenth century and iron handles

became very hot.
Many varieties of special purpose irons were designed to smooth different
parts of a garment. There were mushroom, egg and ball irons (named according
to shape), long-handled sleeve irons and bustle irons and many different irons to
crimp, flute and goffer the material. The tally iron was introduced from Italy in
the sixteenth century to dry and form starched ruffs: the word is an English
corruption of Italy. Also sometimes termed goffering iron, this consists of a stand
fitted with cigar-shaped metal barrels. Iron poking or setting sticks were heated
and inserted into the barrels, then the damp, starched fabric of the ruff was
drawn over the barrel until stiff and dry. Tally irons continued in use for
centuries after ruffs had gone out of fashion, for finishing the ruffled edges of
garments. More elaborate crimping devices followed, such as the ridged fluting
iron and, in the nineteenth century, the crimping machine which resembled a
miniature mangle with ridged brass rollers.
Figure 19.6: ‘Cannon’ charcoal iron with bellows.
PART FIVE: TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
934
The later nineteenth century saw the rapid development of many forms of
self-heating iron, some of which were efficient, others often downright
dangerous. Gas-heated irons, from the 1850s, were the first to be satisfactorily
operated. Then came the use of other fuels: oil, paraffin, naphtha, methylated
spirits, carbide, acetylene and petrol.
The first electric iron appeared in the USA in the early 1880s, but this was
not connected to the electric supply and had to be heated frequently on a
special stand. A French design based on the arc lamp principle followed. In
Britain, Crompton’s were producing electric irons from 1891 which, like later
kettles and vacuum cleaners, had to be plugged into electric light sockets. The
electric iron, however made little progress until the late 1920s because
comparatively few households were wired for electric current. Electric irons of
the 1920s and 1930s were heavy, weighing about 4kg (9lb) because, owing to

fluctuation and unreliability of the power supply, the iron needed to be able to
store heat for the times when it had to cut out. Thermostatic control came in
the late 1930s; before this the temperature of the iron still had to be judged in
the same way that it had been since the sixteenth century. The steam-or-dry
iron appeared in the 1950s. Modern versions are now much more controllable
and streamlined.
THE KITCHEN AND COOKING
The kitchen
Over the centuries the kitchen has been the heart of a home, whether cottage
or castle. This was especially so before the twentieth century when the kitchen
was working centre of the home, a place always warm (for the kitchen fire was
permanently kept alight), and one where food, hot water and a means of
drying clothes, made wet by working all day in the open in all weathers, were
always available. In building structure, in architectural and decorative style, in
up-to-date materials and finishes the kitchen has, until modern times, lagged
behind the rest of the house; it rarely aroused the interest of architects and,
since its workers were women and mainly servants, their comfort and interests
rated very low. It was only after the First World War, when a new world of
work had been opened up to women so that they declined to return to
domestic service, that well-to-do and middle-class housewives demanded a
more attractive, easily cleaned and run kitchen changing the pattern
permanently.
In the Roman kitchen the layout and facilities were simple but adequate.
During the earlier years of the Republic the kitchen was situated in the atrium,
but in larger homes under the Empire it became a separate room at the back of
the house. Slaves did most of the work—stoking the fires, obtaining the fuel,
THE DOMESTIC INTERIOR
935
cooking, cleaning and looking after the stores; the lady of the house supervised
and planned their work and made up the menus. This was important, for the

Roman cuisine was sophisticated and varied. A rainwater cistern supplied
piped water for preparing food and washing up at a mortar-covered stone sink;
a drain carried the water away. Wood or stone tables were provided, shelves
and racks for utensils lined the walls and great storage jars stood upon the
stone or brick floor.
During the Middle Ages the culinary standard fell sharply. A millennium had
to pass after the departure of the Romans before even the ruling classes could
once more enjoy a varied diet and adequate skill in the cooking and presentation
of food. Apart from rural cottages and small town houses, cooking for many was
communal, particularly in the great monasteries and castles. For fear of fire such
kitchens were generally housed in buildings separate from the main structures.
They were large with immense fireplaces and ovens set in the walls which, like
the floor, were of stone. In the roof of these one-storeyed buildings were louvres
from which steam and smoke could escape.
Very slowly, after about 1500, kitchens became better equipped and
furnished and were more comfortable. By the seventeenth century
arrangements for feeding, even in larger houses, were less communal and
kitchens were smaller, less lofty and draughty. With the gradual changeover in
building materials from timber to the more permanent brick or stone, the
danger of fire was lessened and the kitchen had become part of the main
house. Country houses, particularly the larger ones, were self-sufficient in food
and general welfare so, apart from the kitchen itself, there were many adjacent
rooms for different purposes: as a minimum there was a bakehouse, scullery,
pantry, buttery, walk-in larder, dairy, brewery and laundry.
By 1700 storage space in the kitchen had become more generous.
Cupboards and shelves lined the walls and the dresser had made its
appearance. This had begun life as a flat board or table fixed to the wall upon
which the food was prepared (dressed) to make it ready for cooking. Gradually
it acquired shelves above and cupboards below for greater storage availability.
There were also settles, stools and chairs as well as preparation tables. Larger

sash windows gave more light to such kitchens and a trough sink was fitted
with water pipes connected to a pump served by the well outside in the yard.
With nineteenth-century industrialization came taps and running water,
better artificial illumination from oil lamps and, later, gas burners and, towards
the end of the century, the introduction of linoleum for more easy-care floor
coverings (see p. 905). Yet the concept of labour-saving in either equipment or
materials was of low priority. There was a more than adequate supply of cheap
domestic labour to carry out daily scrubbing, steel burnishing and cast iron
black-leading. In fact, the nineteenth-century kitchen was often less
comfortable and attractive than its eighteenth-century counterpart. It was
generally darker because, in towns, houses were built high and narrow to
PART FIVE: TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
936
economize on costly land space, and the kitchen was relegated to the
basement. This was also considered advantageous as the servants could not
then waste their time looking out of the window at passers-by. The nineteenth-
century kitchen also became dirtier and more difficult to clean due to the coal-
burning kitchener and the lighting by open gas burner.
Only after 1918 did comfort and convenience genuinely begin to be
considered. Slowly gas lighting gave place to the cleaner electricity. Hot and
cold piped water were laid on. Closed cupboards replaced open shelves and, in
1925, Hygena Cabinets Ltd introduced the fitted kitchen cabinet, an idea
which stemmed from America. Gradually the ideas of labour-saving devices
and easy-care surfaces were put into practice and the concept, long current in
America, of applying time-and-motion studies to save time and energy in
kitchen work, were adopted. By the 1950s the ‘unit kitchen’ was being built
into new houses and the kitchen had become a bright and colourful place.
Thirty years later the development of plastics (see p. 906) and of
microelectronics have revolutionized kitchen design as well as all its functions.
The preparation and storage of food

The form and appearance of utensils used in preparing food barely changed
for 2000 years. The needs of the housewife were constant: she required
containers to hold powders, solids and liquids, also equipment to grate, sieve,
pound, grind, mash, squeeze, press, mix and beat. Because her requirements
did not alter and the needs of all human beings are similar, equipment to carry
out these processes bore a close resemblance wherever it was to be found in
the civilized world. In Western Europe a competent housewife would certainly
find herself familiar with the utensils of any kitchen at any time between the
days of Ancient Rome and the early nineteenth century.
The natural materials readily to hand were used over the centuries to make
these utensils: wood, horn, earthenware and metals such as iron, brass, copper
and pewter. By the later eighteenth century development in materials had
made kitchen work easier and pleasanter. Advances in the ceramics industry,
under Wedgwood and Spode for example, brought inexpensive and attractive
earthenware and china into everyone’s home whatever their income and, later,
the production of aluminium and then stainless steel made equipment which
was easier to use and keep clean.
By the eighteenth century also, design of equipment had become more
varied and complex but it was the mid-nineteenth century before the
manufacture and advertisement of labour-saving gadgets began to get under
way. Many of these ideas came from the USA, where there was a perennial
insufficiency of servant labour to carry out the boring tasks of preparing food
in the kitchen with the use of knife or chopper. Hand-operated mechanical
THE DOMESTIC INTERIOR
937
devices were marketed which each claimed to reduce magically such chores as
peeling and coring apples, stoning raisins or cherries, slicing bread, cleaning
knives or making sausages.
The breakthrough, as with all other labour-saving devices in the home,
came with the introduction of the small electric motor. This only became

available for the domestic market in suitable form and at reasonable cost soon
after the First World War when such motors were adapted into the design of
kitchen equipment such as blenders, mixers, beaters and choppers. Although
sophisticated electrical equipment of this type was in use in America by the
1920s, electric food mixers, for example, did not come into common use in
Britain until after 1945. The Kenwood design appeared in 1947 as a free-
standing table model which developed over some years to become, in the
words of the manufacturers, a ‘complete food preparation appliance’. In later
models the Kenwood Chef, with its impressive array of attachments, could
extract juice, shred, slice, beat, liquidize, make cream and grind coffee. The
introduction of the electronic (thyristor) device made electrical operation more
economical. More recently the food processor has taken over all these chores in
a simpler, less cumbersome design and using a less costly range of attachments.
Various ways of preserving fresh food—pickling, drying, salting and
smoking—were used over the centuries (see Chapter 16). In addition, in the
nineteenth century, canned food could be bought in shops. Paradoxically,
though, the tin opener only became available some time after the tins of food
could be purchased. Early cans were made by hand and the lids soldered on.
Helpful instructions were printed on them suggesting that the best method of
opening was by hammer and chisel. The domestic can opener was introduced
in the USA in the 1860s and was supplied with cans of bully beef. Not
surprisingly the opener—of painted cast iron—was in the form of a bull’s head
with its tail shaping the handle.
The sixth method of preserving food, by chilling, had been practised in a
limited way in larger homes over generations by using ice formed naturally.
This was then cut up into blocks in winter and stored underground in ice-
houses. In the early nineteenth century in wealthy countries with hot summer
climates, such as the USA, the ice box was used in homes. It was a wooden
chest or storage cupboard lined with zinc: there was an insulating material —
asbestos, cork, wool, felt, charcoal, ash, for example—packed between the

wood and zinc layers. Ice, imported from northern countries, was delivered
daily by the ice man. Ice boxes came much later to England and were still
being sold in Harrods in 1929, price £6 195 6d.
The household mechanical refrigerator, which would actually lower the
interior air temperature, did not appear until just before the First World War,
some 35 years after its introduction in long-distance, sea-going vessels carrying
meat or fish. The Domelre model was on sale in Chicago in 1913 and the
Kelvinator came out the following year in Detroit. Steam power was used at
PART FIVE: TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
938
first, later an electric motor. Again, with a cooler summer climate and a less
wealthy population, Britain lagged behind the USA. The first model sold in
Britain was a French compressor design in 1921. By 1923 the Frigidaire
Corporation of the USA was manufacturing in Britain and soon the successful
Electrolux water-cooled absorption refrigerator followed. The A.B.Lux
Company of Sweden had been founded in 1901 and the ‘Electro’ was only
added in 1919. The company purchased in 1922 the results of research carried
out by two Swedish students at Stockholm University and, after four years’
development of the appliance, brought out their refrigerator. It had a capacity
of about one-third of a cubic metre (11.75ft3) and in Britain cost £48 10s.
This, of course, was only the beginning. After 1945 the refrigerator became
increasingly a household necessity. It was soon more efficient, and offered
better insulation, automatic de-frosting and door-storage capacity. The home
freezer, developed as a miniature version of the bulk food container freezers in
commercial use, followed, either in chest form or as part of a refrigerator. Since
1960 it has been regarded as essential in many homes.
Cooking on the open hearth
The Roman hearth was a raised one; the preferred fuel was charcoal which
burned in circular holes set into the surface of the hearth. The cooking vessels
of earthenware or metal (generally bronze), were supported upon iron tripods

over these charcoal fires or stood on an iron gridiron. A hooded wall flue
carried the toxic fumes from the burning charcoal. Such hearths can be seen in
many sites but particularly in Pompeii in Italy, where the charcoal remains in
situ in the cavities as do also the gridiron and the cooking vessels just as they
had been in use before the eruption of Vesuvius.
From the early Middle Ages until the development of the kitchen range in
the late eighteenth century, all cooking of food, with the exception of baking
which was carried out in ovens, was done above or in front of the open hearth.
By the twelfth century this was built into a wall under a large archway with a
wide flue for the escape of smoke. The brick or stone floor of such down
hearths was raised slightly and upon this stood the great andirons which
supported the burning logs of the fire. As coal gradually replaced wood as a
fuel, the firegrate developed for kitchen use in the same way as in other rooms
of the house, though its design was less ornamented and more practical.
Cooking by boiling, stewing and simmering was done in vessels suspended
over the fire. Such vessels varied in size but were of similar design. They were
made of earthenware or metal—iron, bronze, brass, copper—and had rounded
bottoms to achieve an even distribution of heat. Some vessels stood on stubby
legs and could be set beside the fire in the embers to cook food slowly or keep
it hot. All vessels had handles and some were fitted with lids.
THE DOMESTIC INTERIOR
939
From the early Middle Ages onwards ways were experimented with for
suspending the vessels over the fire and the chimney crane was developed for
this purpose, its final, sophisticated form not being reached until the
seventeenth century. The earliest designs consisted merely of iron bars or
hooks fixed into the wall of the chimneypiece with vessels hung from these on
chains. This was a limited system, as only one or two pots could be suspended
at any one time and it was difficult to adjust the position of these relative to the
heat of the fire. It was only too easy for the cook to burn herself in replacing

one pot with another. Then the ratchet-hanger was made which enabled the
cook to raise or lower a pot, but the chimney crane was a great advance and as
it developed greater manoeuvrability was achieved. In its final form a vertical
iron post was sunk into the floor of the side of the hearth. From this extended
at right angles a horizontal bar, making a bracket which could be swung like a
gate through an angle of 90°. There was also a mechanism to raise and lower
the height of pots, also to move them along the bar towards or away from the
heat source. Many of these three-motion cranes, which were usually made by
the local blacksmith, were decorative, incorporating ornamental ironwork.
Apart from boiling and simmering food could also be toasted in front of the
fire and, over the centuries, many designs of toaster were developed, from the
small down-hearth toasters standing on low feet on the hearth to tall adjustable
types. Camp ovens, for slow cooking of smaller dishes were set on short legs in
the embers of the fire. These were of cast iron and were lidded.
Roasting was carried out on the revolving spit in front of the fire and the
large dripping tray was set beneath the spit to catch the fat. Different designs of
iron or steel spit were made (also by the local blacksmith). The straight spit
was in general use but there was also the pronged spit, designed to grip the
meat firmly, and the basket spit to contain a small animal or fowl. The spit (or
spits, for several could be operated simultaneously to roast different sizes of
joint) rested in ratcheted supports known as cob-irons or cobbards. These
could be adjusted to vary the height of the spits.
The motive power for turning the spit continuously developed over the
centuries. For a long period—up to the end of the Middle Ages—the power was
human. A man or boy turned a handle and he was called a turnspit. He was
responsible for seeing that the meat or fish was evenly and fully cooked: the
phrase ‘done-to-a-turn’, derives from this operation. A screen was set up to
protect the turnspit from the heat of the fire. In the sixteenth century the dog
turnspit began to replace the boy. Short-legged dogs were bred especially for
this purpose and worked in pairs, taking it in turns to pad round the inside of a

wooden wheel set high up on the side of the chimney breast. The handle of the
spit was then replaced by a grooved wheel which was turned via a continuous
chain and a pulley by the dog treadmill. Dogs continued to be used as
turnspits until well into the nineteenth century, especially in rural areas. A
treadmill and a stuffed dog are on display in Abergavenny Museum in South
PART FIVE: TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
940
Wales. Of a breed now extinct, the dog is golden, long-haired and long-bodied,
with short legs and a sweeping tail.
From the late sixteenth century onwards alternative means of motive power
were being developed to turn spits. The mechanical jack, which was in use in
most larger homes by about 1650, consisted of a system of weights and gears
and was gravity driven. (The word ‘jack’ was commonly used to apply to a
mechanism which would replace the labour provided by a human being.)
An eighteenth-century invention was the smoke jack, powered by the
uprush of hot air ascending from the fire. A vane was fixed horizontally into
the chimney at the point where it narrowed to ascend the shaft and the heated
air caused it to revolve. The vane was connected by a system of gears to the
power shaft and thence by chains which could turn the wheels of several spits.
It was a wasteful method as it required great heat from the fire and was
generally only used in large houses to power a roasting range. One was fitted
(and is still on display) in the kitchen of the Royal Pavilion at Brighton.
The nineteenth century brought two other aids to roasting: the hastener and
the bottle jack. The hastener was a large metal screen, half-cylindrical in form,
standing on legs in front of the fire. In the open side facing the fire hung a
small joint and its cooking process was speeded up by the reflected heat from
the metal shield. In the other side of the hastener was a door through the
opening of which the cook could baste the joint. The bottle jack was a spring-
driven small brass cylinder which could be hung on a hook from the
mantelpiece or from a hastener. A small roast was suspended from a wheel

under this jack which, when wound up caused the joint to turn first one way
then back again for a prescribed time.
Ovens were generally built into the wall by the side of an open hearth, so
sharing the same chimney flue. They were brick-lined, with a brick or stone
floor, and could be closed with a metal door. The fuel, usually brushwood, was
placed on the floor of the oven and lit. When the oven was hot enough, the
ashes were raked out and the food inserted. Residual heat was later used to
dry herbs or firewood.
Cooking with solid fuel by kitchen range
During the nineteenth century the enclosed kitchen range, made of iron and
steel and burning coal, gradually replaced the open fire for cooking purposes.
This represented the logical progression from the hob grate which, developing
from the dog and basket grates, had begun to enclose the coal and so create
better draught conditions for burning coal (see p. 916). Over many years it
became understood that a further enclosure of the fire would be more
economical in use of fuel as well as giving better heat control and making it
possible to provide an oven and a boiler for hot water as well.
THE DOMESTIC INTERIOR
941
It was in the second half of the eighteenth century that several inventions
were patented which finally led to the first successfully functioning kitchen
range. As was only to be expected, Britain being world leader in
industrialization at the time, this range was a British one, designed by Thomas
Robinson in 1780. It was an iron roasting range comprising an open coal fire
with removable bars and, on top, iron hobs on either side. Roasting could be
done in front of the range and cooking pots for stewing and boiling were set
on the flat hobs. A hinged trivet was fitted to the top bar of the grate; this
could be swung forward to take a kettle or pan. At one side of the range was a
brick-lined oven and on the other a hot water tank. Robinson’s range
represented a landmark in the development of means of cooking but it had

considerable drawbacks. Most important of these was the oven which, being
only heated on one side, tended to burn the food on this side and leave it
undercooked on the other. Also, the top of the fire grate was open, emitting
smoke and burning fuel extravagantly.
In 1802, George Bodley, an Exeter ironfounder, patented the enclosed
kitchen range. In this the fire grate had a closed top, so controlling the heat
and directing the smoke up the chimney. The heating of the oven was better
controlled than in Robinson’s range, as Bodley introduced flues to convey the
heat round the far side of the oven. He also left space below the oven for air to
circulate.
Neither of these two ranges was very efficient but improvements came
gradually. Between 1800 and 1900 many different models were marketed and
by 1850 ranges were being built into new houses and replacing open hearths in
existing ones. Interestingly, during the whole of the nineteenth century, despite
the plethora of designs to choose from, there continued to be two main types:
the open range based on Robinson’s original and the closed one of the Bodley
type. The open range, which generally came to be called the cottage range or
Yorkshire range, was more popular in northern areas as it made the kitchen
warmer, providing heat and cooking simultaneously. The closed range, usually
called a kitchener, was more suited to southern regions as the fire could be
enclosed when not needed for cooking.
Late nineteenth-century ranges were large and much more efficient. They
were fitted with one or two ovens, four to six hobs, hot water tank, a warming
closet for plates and many gadgets. Heat and smoke were carefully controlled
and fuel consumption was much more economical. Much of the ancillary
equipment used with the older open hearth continued to be employed with the
range: the hastener, bottle jack, kettle tilter, trivets, toasters.
Ranges were still being made in the 1920s for homes which had no gas or
electric supply but, as the range was nearing the end of its useful life, cooking
by solid fuel was given a boost by the introduction of the Aga cooker. This was

the brain-child of the Swedish Nobel prize-winner Dr Gustav Dalen, who
devised a cooker based on sound scientific heat-conservation principles. Clean,