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The history of the common household flatiron or clothes iron is more interesting than it might sound. Amazingly, irons date back to the 1st century, B.C., when metal pans filled with boiling water were used to smooth fabrics in China. The leader of most cutting-edge technologies of the 1st century, China quickly exported this knowledge to Europe and the rest of the world along the Silk Road. As technology developed and cast iron made its entree on the the world stage, smoothing clothes became the territory of the "sad iron," from an old word meaning "solid." These early flatirons were used throughout the 17th century and consisted of a delta-shaped cast iron lump with a flat surface and handle that would be heated in a fire before being pressed onto articles of clothing. Other solutions around that time consisted of an iron box filled with hot coals and aerated periodically by pumping the attached set of bellows. What about countries that didn't have coal in abundance? Interestingly, coconut shells burn at roughly the same temperature and have other similar qualities, and were used as coal's replacement in places like India. While the iron box and bellows seems like a rather primitive device, it is still in use as back up irons in many countries where power outages are frequent. Back on the continent, however, regular flatirons expanded to include more than one per household. This would enable the ironer to pick up a newly heated iron just as the previous began to cool. Finally, people began to realize what fun it could be to burn other fuels in order to heat their irons, and sources quickly expanded to include irons fueled by whale oil, ethanol, and kerosene. These irons first appeared on the scene around the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. You might imagine, however, that the risk of pumping these fuels into your house would drastically increase the risk of fire. Regardless of this very real danger, kerosene and gasoline irons remained in use in rural areas up until the Second World War. The first electric iron was invented in 1882, although there was no viable way at the time to control how hot it could get. This iron was again improved by the addition of a thermostat to regulate the current moving in and out to keep the appliance at the desired temperature. The iron was finally perfected with the addition of steam, which is now what most American households employ to iron their shirts. Chromalox, a company founded in 1915, is responsible for the first strip heater, which later became the modern electric iron. Taking the Chromalox name from the "chrome" of the strip heater and the "locking-in" of the electric strip by a cement mix, the company flourished. In fact, Chromalox provided the first Apollo mission with a strip heater built with aeronautics in mind. The company now has manufacturing plants around the world and is proud to attach the Chromalox name to its products in the aerospace, nuclear, and industrial temperature controls industries. Read more about the history of Chromalox Mississippi at: http://rosspethtel.com.
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