March 8, 1987
By Jan Buffington
Vigo County Historical Society
Clean clothes
Postick reigned as early washing machine
In early societies, the importance given cleanliness was attributed to religious codes. Egyptians cleaned not only their own clothing, but also the clothing of idols representing the spirit Ka.
They believed that Ka shared their existence. Sacred Hindu books called Vedas established the belief that washing clothing was essential to physical as well as moral well-being. In the laws given to Moses for his people. cleanliness was a sign of religious purification: “cleanliness is next to Godliness.” He decreed that clothing that did not come clean after two washings had to be burned.
Cleanliness, after the fall of the Roman Empire, became suspect, and was associated with paganism by the Christians. By the seventh century, washday in Europe was a twice-a-year event for entire villages. Not until the Knights returned from the Crusades did washing clothes become less sinister. It was the followers of Mahomet, Moslems, who taught the Knights the importance of clean bodies and clothing.
Still, during the Middle Ages and even through the Renaissance, most people gave little attention to cleaning their own clothes. Instead, they used strong perfumed to cover body odor. The aristocrats wore silks and velvets, which were never washed. The rest of the people primarily wore wool, which was seldom washed.
New laundry methods were slow to come. When people did do the wash, with or without soap, down through all the early civilizations, washing clothes involved beating, trampling and soaking fabric in running water or streams. The only variant was the kind of stick, rock or paddle used.
One of the early washing improvements was the postick. Developed in England, it consisted of two parts: a barrel and a plunger.
This week’s historical treasure is a well-preserved postick made in England around the middle to late 1800s. The barrel is made of oak bound with brass stays. An added convenience for the housewife was a handy drain hole and plug on one side. The plunger is cut from a large piece of solid wood. The top has a handle fashioned by inserting a dowel through it, and the bottom has four slots called notices, to help jostle the clothes in the water.
If I had lived in that period, I’m sure I would have had to add one more piece of equipment to this wash day ensemble--a chair or a stool. The barrel is quite high and I am quite short, therefore, to get a good jostling motion with the postick, I would have to stand on something.
The following is how I imagine this postick may have been used. On wash day, the housewife filled the barrel with hot soapy water and jostled the clothes, a batch at a time, until they were clean. As each article of clothing was cleaned, she wrung it out by hand and set it aside. The barrel was then emptied over a porch or a chicken coop that needed a good scrubbing. She then refilled the barrel with clean water and rinsed the soapy clothes. Starch was added to the clothes that needed it. Each article was wrung by hand again and hung out to dry over bushes, the fence or on the grass in the sun. In the winter, things were hung outside until they froze, then were taken inside the house.
Albert Richardson donated this postick to the museum in 1966. It was brought to this country in 1911 by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Thompson Richardson, who came from Northumberland County, England, near the Scottish border.
The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.