MARCH 28
Nathaniel Briggs patents first U.S. washing machine — 1797
A lot of history stuff happened on this day. We could take a look at the Vikings sacking of Paris in 845 or the 3-Mile Island disaster in 1979. But I’m looking for something to celebrate. So let’s do this: Let’s all thank a fellow named Nathaniel Briggs who, in 1797, filed the first U.S. patent for a washing machine. Hallelujah. And I think speak for everyone.
This is not to say that washing machines didn’t exist before young Nate came along; they certainly did. Machines to help with the drudgery of washing one’s unmentionables were around in Britain long before. The first washing machine patent in that country was in 1691.
But back to Briggs’ enterprise: it never got off the ground. And thanks to a fire at the Patent Office in 1863, we don’t even know what his washing machine even looked like. So Nathaniel goes on the ‘Good Try’ list and is hereby recognized for his effort. Because that’s how we do it today—“Good try, bud.”
So who came up with the goods? Let’s give that award to Alva J. Fisher who gave America its first electric clothes washer sometime in the first decade of the 20th Century. His brand name for the gizmo was "Thor’" and was made available for sale in 1907.
I’m pleased to say that the home washing machine has made great strides since then. But after well over a century of innovation, is it asking too much of them to come up with a way to get clothes from the bathroom floor to the machine without including me? Come on, gang — progress never sleeps.
