The wringer mangle.
 

'The wringer mangle was invented in 1850 by Robert Tasker in Lancashire, the ansector of the current firm Taskers of Accrington, which is a furniture retailer; it was a cheaper, simplified version of the box mangle. Box mangles were large and expensive; they were used by wealthy households and large commercial laundries. Middle-class households and small-scale washerwomen used the plain mangle. Later in the 19th century, the steam engine was harnessed to laundry purposes and commercial laundries used steam-powered mangles.'
Mangle (machine) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


'The creator and builder of the first geared wooden roller wet clothes-wringing machine was master blacksmith Robert Tasker, circa 1850. At the time, he had smithy in Back Union Street, which became part of Accrington Broadway. Robert and wife Betty, a weaver, produced 10 daughters and three sons so presumably, had an almost daily stack of dirty laundry.'

'Robert, who made the gates to the cemetery in Burnley Road, Accrington, which are still in use today, refused to patent his invention, saying, God gives men brains to help his brother, not line his pockets. However, he and Betty did charge their neighbours a penny a time to come to their house and use the machine!'
Taskers - Our History

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

'Another man who put Accrington on the map was Robert Tasker. Actually born in Whalley in 1812, he invented and built the first mangle - or the geared wooden roller wet clothes wringing machine, as it was called.'
Lancashire news, sport and entertainment from Lancashire, Greater Manchester & Merseyside - Johnnie come lately

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

Well shame on both of them, they were responsible for beginning the slide down the slippery slope of freeing woman from the chains that held them to the kitchen sink, which now allows them the time to imagine they are free thinking sentient beings!
:hidewall:

I think I'll add that wall to my signature, it would save having to dig it out every time I post.:D

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

It's strange how one invention can have a ripple effect.

'1850s US patents registered for first known bra-like devices.
Corsets fall out of style for about 10 years. '
History of the Bra

:D

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

I put a cat through one of those things once, when I was a kid. It came out pretty mangy the other side.

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

I think you should have a new avatar, cat mangler.

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

It would be nice to get a real squashed cat to hang on the washing line. I'm sure it would keep other cats out of the back yard.

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

Thanks for the link Rindi, it was very uplifting:rolleyes:

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

rubbish its a load of tits.:D

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

Paris doing cashman's washing

http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/gifs/mangle.jpg

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

Nah our mangles green n aint got them sides.:D

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

My mum had a mangle and when we changed houses once she made me and my brother take it to the new house at night! (so the neighbours wouldn't see it.)
We gave it a push down Rowan Avenue (hoping it would crash) but it arrived all in one piece on Trinity St. The kids there were fascinated by it!!
What memories!

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

Garinda, your first post on this - mentioning all the children the Taskers had. All quite true! Wow! What a family! Wonder if any of our members are related. Could be like Heir Hunters, related but - they dont even know it!
On the 1861 census -
Name Age

Robert Tasker 48 yrs
Betty Tasker 41 yrs
Mary A Tasker 22 yrs
Jane Tasker 20 yrs
Dorothy Tasker 18 yrs
Elizabeth Tasker 13 yrs
Joseph Tasker 11 yrs
Ellen Tasker 9 yrs
Clara A Tasker 5 yrs
Rebecca G Tasker 2 yrs
Robert T Tasker 7 Months

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

I remember a green coloured mangle and my grans. It folded down to form a work surface when not in use. It was on the opposite side of the kitchen to the clothes boiler and opposite the meatsafe, next to the baby belling.

Needless to say there was an Ascot geyser over the sink!

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

Clothes Boiler, Meatsafe, Baby Belling, Ascot Geyser, wow, your family must have been well off:D:D:D

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

They had a maid, car and chauffer until about 1930! Then Bury Brothers collapsed and it went downhill from there.

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

Fridges were a luxury item at one time. I didn't get one until I had been married for 4 years. My mum had one which ran off GAS.

Electric mangles were in common use in the 50s. My mum wouldn't give one house room because there were many people who got mangled arms.

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

Found this link on the Taskers site. Contains similar info to the above with a few additions. Also two nice photos of Queens mill site; one interior and one prior to construction. It seems Burnley have stolen the original geared mangle...

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

My (other) gran had a gas fridge. They're quite complicated and not as good as electric ones, so they never really caught on.

I remember a friend having an electric washing machine with a powered mangle attached, although I think it was officially known as a "wringer." It packed up after a while, and they were left with
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a dead wringer :do-one:

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

In the Accrington Gazette November 1868, there is reference to a court case relating to Tasker St, (formerly Castle St), in which a Mr Tasker (blacksmith) & others were questioned about the repairs & upkeep of Tasker St.
Quite a lot of local history in that article, about when the houses were built, and who lived in them.
Retlaw.

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

I have doubts about Tasker's claim to have invented the mangle. Another local chap who brought out a mangle was John Shorrock Lightfot. Neither of them held patents relating to the mangle, though they did hold other patents. Lightfoot was probably 'backed' by Entwisle & Kenyon, the 'Ewbank' people. I am enquiring as to mangle patents and hope to be able to report soon. Incidentally, I think it was Shorrock whose wife (?) was called Atarah. What a name to go to bed with. Who in their right mind would use that name?

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

Mangle (machine) - Ask Jeeves Encyclopedia

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

My doubts remain, even though I would like to believe it. Jeeves is quoting something written by a Tasker. I think it strange that, having invented something , he didn't seek publicity for it and thus increase sales. It seems to me that the important bit of what he did was not to invent a mangle, but to invent a GEARED one.

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

Whats strange about not seeking publicity, were not all trumpet blowers, some of us just like to get on with what we are doing. I am very suspicous of those who go around blowing their own trumpets.
Retlaw.

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

Tasker was a self-employed businessman. He would know that if he wanted to make brass out of his invention, he needed to tell folk about it. If he sold the idea to (say) Entwisle & Kenyon, they would certainly have told the world about this labour-saving, sweat-reducing product. I am not saying he didn't come up with the idea first, I am saying that I have doubts, as much as I want to believe that an Accrington chap lead the world.I have no trumpet to blow.

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

I quote from a Ewbank publicity leaflet published c 1890......"Although Accrington may not be the actual birthplace of mangles".....It then goes on to say they have an example ( photo with it) of a mangle made by Tasker c1850. It appears to be the one now in the Towneley Hall Museum and it was formerly in the small museum at the Ewbank works.

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

All the articles I've read put Tasker as inventing the "geared mangle", and not the first mangle. They all attribute the first mangle to a John Turnbull. One source I found even claimed that the first mangle was some kind of modified printing press and so was un-patentable; I can't find the link.

Would be very interesting to hear what you manage to dig up on the patents Bob.

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

Whilst as yet I have no detail as to design, I have learned that the first British patent for a mangle was taken out in February 1774 by a Hugh Oxenham. The reference number is 1064.

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

I now have the patent. Hugh Oxenham was a London-based carpenter and mangle-maker.He described his invention as 'a mangle of entirely new construction made with sliding collars, wood or metal springs,rollers cogged with iron or pinning wheels, to answer all the purposes of mangles without the encumbrance of weight and will stand in a third part of the room of common mangles.' It appears that this was a wooden-framed, four-legged mangle, cranked by a handle and much smaller than those already in use.

This was a century before Tasker's mangle, which was made of cast iron, so that may have been how, if at all, Tasker's mangle differed from others.

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

Nice work Bob. May sound like a daft question - but was it definitely a clothes mangle? Not suggesting for a minute that Oxenham wasn't the original inventor, but I did read somewhere the term 'mangle' was used for other apparatus before clothes mangles were around.

Re: The wringer mangle.
 

I think it was used also for smoothing clothes in the way we now iron them. It involved very heavy stones,so maybe it was a bit different from those with rollers. The early ones were known as 'box mangles'