If you have lived without a washing machine (like me in my first student house) and have washed and wrung out towels and sheets in a small shower, you will probably agree with me!

For many hundreds of years, however, people washed their clothes by hand! And they didn't even have running water, they had to go to streams and rivers, or carry water to their homes and wash their clothes in basins! 

One of the first attempts to create a washing machine was made by the German theologian, entomologist, botanist, and inventor Jacob Christian Schäffer! (what a rich biography, the guy probably had many hobbies) 

In 1767, he published his design for a mechanism, like the one you see in the image, which, although it still required strong arms, made the job somewhat easier!  It was essentially a large container (like a covered barrel) for the clothes to go inside, and a rod that ended in a disc with multiple hooks. 

This mechanism went inside the container and, by turning the handle, it could rotate the clothes in the water! (I imagine it somewhat like a manual mixer)  At the bottom, it has a small tap to drain the dirty water after washing!

The first automatic, *electric* washing machines, the ones that have a rotating drum and you can adjust the temperature, duration of the wash, etc., started to appear around 1930! SO RECENTLY! 

And today, not only do we have washing machines that do everything on their own (except for putting in and taking out the clothes and the detergents) but they can even be connected to the internet via Wi-Fi! WHAT ELSE WILL OUR EYES SEE!