Take Down That Clothesline Post-Haste
By Jerry Walch, 26th Jul 2012 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutNewsPolitics
It was during the 1930's that J. Ross Moore invented both the electric and gas clothes driers and he patented both in 1936. Then in 1937, the Hamilton Manufacturing Company bought Moore's patents and started mass producing gas and electric driers. From 1938 and 1941, Hamilton Manufacturing sold 6,000 units at $230 per unit. That was a lot of money back when a brand new car only cost $800. Only 10 percent of the population could afford one. Most folk relied on clotheslines to dry their wash.
- The ubiquitous clothes drier.
- Clotheslines are Banned.
- Why the concern over clotheslines?
- Project Laundry List
The ubiquitous clothes drier.
Today it is becoming as difficult to find a home that does not have an automatic washing machine and clothes drier as it would have been to find a home that had them back in 1940. They are everywhere. They certainly have made woman's work easier but they consume a great deal of energy in the process. Clothes driers account for 15 percent of all domestic energy consumption. Many energy conscious people are reverting back to the old way of drying their clothes, by putting up a clothesline or two in their backyard. Or, at least, they would if they were allowed to.
Clotheslines are Banned.
While people are being encouraged to “Go Green” and conserve our natural resources, many communities are passing ordinances that forbid the residents of those communities from putting up clotheslines. According to an article, Debate Follows Bills to Remove Clotheslines Bans, in the October 10, 2009 issue of the New York Times, the majority of private communities in the U.S. ban clotheslines, the free, old-fashioned, and environmentally friendly alternative to using a dryer.
Why the concern over clotheslines?
It comes down to property values. The public display of laundry on a clothesline makes a home—and by extension, the surrounding residential development, neighborhood, and town—appear poor. At least that is the way those in power justify the ordinances they pass to keep people from putting up and using a backyard clothesline.
Project Laundry List
Project Laundry List is a nonprofit organization that is fighting to get these nonsensical laws repealed. Because of their political actions several states (Colorado, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont) have already stepped in and overruled local ordinances against clotheslines. More states are sure to follow but Project Laundry List needs your support now.
Citations:
"What Year Was the Electric Clothes Dryer Invented?." Sophisticated Edge. N.p., n.d. Web. July 26, 2012 .
http://www.sophisticatededge.com/what-year-was-the-electric-clothes-dryer-invented.html.
Comments
27th Jul 2012 (#)
We need massive civil disobedience. Put up a clothesline, wherever you are!
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27th Jul 2012 (#)
Right you are Steve!
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27th Jul 2012 (#)
I put mine up and hang my sheets on it and buggar any one who tells me to take it away although some mean person cuts the line sometimes so my wash is on the ground!!! but nothing deters me from hanging it out again....
thanks Jerry love this piece
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27th Jul 2012 (#)
Thanks for reading and commenting Cn. I can remember one time when my Aunt caught someone cutting one of her clothes lines. That jerk ran home with an arse full of rock salt from my Aunts 12-gauge shotgun that she kept by the kitchen door.
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27th Jul 2012 (#)
Well, I never heard of such. I see them all over here and not a peep, I could just imagine if they tried to ban it here, talk about a uproar. Thank you for sharing.:)
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27th Jul 2012 (#)
Thanks for reading and commenting, Denise.
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27th Jul 2012 (#)
Great one Jerry yet again where do you find this stuff. If I lived in that place I would put up a washing line and just put all my dirty underwear on the thing. That should keep the buggers away.
Best Wishes
Steve
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27th Jul 2012 (#)
Hi Steve. I think that the first article that I read on this came from either the New York Times Newspaper or the USA Today newspaper--the electronic editions.
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29th Jul 2012 (#)
Again bureaucratic idiots must be behind this.
My God if a person cannot tolerate seeing somebodies CLEAN laundry in their yard they really need to move out of the city!
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30th Jul 2012 (#)
Agreed Mark.
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