Raise your hand if you haven't been there even once in your life: the laundromat is today one of the most popular commercial establishments in Italian and European cities and indeed all over the world. Important for those who cannot afford a washing machine at home, for those who need a dryer, but also for those who have to wash very bulky items such as duvets and curtains (perhaps during the change of season), for whom a domestic washing machine is not enough roomy. Not exactly cheap, in proportion, the automatic laundry still represents a useful solution for millions of families, despite the now mass diffusion of household appliances. But when was she born? To be precise, he turns 86 today: the first opened on April 18, 1934 in Fort Worth, Texas, with the name of “washateria”.
It was opened by a certain Noah Brannen: perhaps the name says little but his idea was quickly replicated throughout the Anglo-Saxon world. In fact, soon in the United States, but also in Canada and Australia, these laundries that worked on tokens and without attendants spread and they took the name of “laundromat”, from the commercial brand of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation company, created by science journalist George Edward Pendray, a fan of science fiction and one of the first supporters of space flight, as well as a consultant to the company in the late XNUMXs. In Britain laundromats will be called instead “launderettes” or “laundrettes”, the first of which will open on May 9, 1949 in Queensway, a suburb of London. London was the first laundromat in Europe, but soon the novelty reached other countries.
Its introduction, in addition to that of the domestic washing machine, does not have a trivial meaning. In fact, together with the birth control pill, the washing machine is considered the most important invention which encouraged the long journey of emancipation of women from the role of house fairy. Some even say that the automatic washing machine it has changed the world more than the Internet, because it has given women back the time to work. By taking the job out of women, commercial laundries have made it possible for everyone to do their own laundry. Where singles, off-site students, men or women who rent apartments during the week because they work away from home live, you will more easily find commercial laundries.
