Main article: Clothes iron
The iron is the small appliance used to remove wrinkles from fabric. It is also known as a clothes iron, steam iron, flat iron, smoothing iron or iron box.
On 15 February 1858 W. Vandenburg and J. Harvey patented an ironing table that facilitated pressing sleeves and pant legs.6 A truly portable folding ironing board was first patented in Canada in 1875 by John B. Porter. The invention also included a removable press board used for sleeves.7 In 1892 Sarah Boone obtained a patent in the United States for improvements to the ironing board, allowing for better quality ironing for shirt sleeves.8
A tailor's ham or dressmakers ham is a tightly stuffed pillow in the shape of a ham used as a mold when pressing curves such as sleeves or collars.9
Commercial dry cleaning and full-service laundry providers usually use a large appliance called a steam press to do most of the work of ironing clothes. Alternatively, a rotary iron may be used.
Historically, larger tailors' shops included a tailor's stove, used to quickly and efficiently heat multiple irons. In many developing countries a cluster of solid irons, heated alternatively from a single heating source, are used for pressing clothes at small commercial outlets.
Another source suggests slightly higher temperatures; for example, 180-220 °C for cotton.19
When the fabric is heated, the molecules are more easily reoriented. In the case of cotton fibres, which are derivatives of cellulose, the hydroxyl groups that crosslink the cellulose polymer chains are reformed at high temperatures and become somewhat "locked in place" upon cooling the item. In permanent press pressed clothes, chemical agents such as dimethylol ethylene urea are added as crosslinking agents.
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Fritz Schultze-Gebhardt, Karl-Heinz Herlinger "Fibers, 1. Survey" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Wily-VCH, Weinheim, 2000. doi:10.1002/14356007.a10_451 /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩
"IRONING definition". linguazza.com. Retrieved 2022-07-12. https://linguazza.com/definition/ironing ↩
Oldandinteresting.com http://www.oldandinteresting.com/antique-irons-smoothers-mangles.aspx ↩
Enchantedlearning.com http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/1800b.shtml ↩
U.S. patent 19,390 https://patents.google.com/patent/US19390 ↩
Mario Theriault, Great Maritime Inventions 1833–1950, Goose Lane, 2001, p. 31 ↩
Ramirez, Ainissa (July 26, 2020). "Two inventors who should have statues". The Hartford Courant. Retrieved 6 August 2020. https://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-ramirez-statutes-connecticut-inventors-0726-20200726-26tyypy3uvbj3ggmw35yenhryu-story.html ↩
"Tailor's ham and Seam Roll Free Pattern". Sewing Princess. Retrieved 2012-05-24. http://bombardone.com/sewingprincess/2011/01/tailors-ham-and-seam-roll-free-pattern// ↩
"Bra att veta vad man har på sig" (PDF). Ulla Popken. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-11-22. Retrieved 2010-02-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20091122124252/http://images01.ullapopken.de/resources/bilder/se/se/pflegetipps/pflegefibel.pdf ↩
"General care" (PDF). Lanidor. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2010-02-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20110713183451/http://eshop.lanidor.com/Files/care_instructions_uk.pdf ↩