In connection with steam laundry machinery for use in large institutions, hotels, and public steam laundries, we cannot do better than describe one of the many successful laundries that Messrs. Bradford have fitted up during the last 25 years, and which contains every appliance and a system likely to be conducive to good and successful work.
We cannot, however, pass on without briefly referring to the first important steam laundry started by Mr. Bradford at Upper Norwood in 1865, and which is still working with the most gratifying results. Ever since, and especially during the last few years, the development of this branch of industry has been simply remarkable, adding not only to the convenience of the public but also to the means of employment of girls, women, boys, and men in very large numbers.
Reverting to Mr. Bradford’s original laundry, we find that although some of his latest novelties are worked there, many of the appliances which were put in the laundry when it first started are still working—a sufficient evidence of their substantial character.
At the entrance to a steam laundry should be a covered way, for the vans to stand under when loading and unloading, and the vanmen should deposit the linen in the hall when they bring it from customers, keeping each load separate. Space is also here provided for the storage of empty baskets. On one side of the hall at the laundry in question is a door, leading to the
Receiving and Sorting room, where a female clerk checks the customers’ books as the goods are counted by an assistant. Books are provided by the laundry in which are printed detailed lists of ladies’, gentlemen’s, children’s, and servants’ washing, blank spaces being left for the customers to insert number of articles sent, and for any special instructions.
In several partitioned compartments young women examine the linen—each family’s being kept distinct—to see whether it is marked with the customer’s name, and to all articles not so distinguished a private coloured cotton mark is attached.
Leading from the Receiving Room is a long passage, on one side of which is a number of clothes bins, each marked with the name of the class of linen it contains. On the opposite side of this passage is a small private wash-house, intended for special work.
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