An automatic electric washer helped women save loads of time in the early 1900s. Frederick L. Maytag invented the motor-driven washer in 1911, like the one pictured in the Popular Electricity Magazine. The washing machine was made up of three main parts: the motor, a tub for the dirty clothes, and a tub for washing. The clothes would start in a large wooden tub, and were then submerged in water, where wooden paddles spun the clothes around in different directions to clean them. Then, the clothes were moved from the tub and put through a wringing machine that pressed the water out of them. All of this occurred automatically, as the motor powered the machine. An entire tub of dirty clothing could be washed in five to fifteen minutes, much like the washing machines we use today.
