https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/d7b974e1-69eb-487e-9ac3-666f45a398b8 Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCddem5RlB3bQe99wyY49g0g/join Help us preserve, scan and post more rare and endangered films! Join us on Patreon. Visit https://www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Visit our website www.PeriscopeFilm.com One of a series of films that showed "Americans at Work", this episode showcases laundry workers. The films shows the evolution of commercial wash and dry-cleaning services, including the path from historical methods to modern sheet washing using sophisticated mechanical laundry systems. The film tours modern laundry plants to show white and African American / Black workers using advanced machinery and conveyor belts for commercial washing. Clothes move from the front desk to the sorter, washer, extractor and press. The process includes agitation in the tumbler and extraction of excess fluids. Workers maintain schedules in order to meet delivery times. Narration explains home methods for dry cleaning were considerably dangerous and ineffective. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations or AFL-CIO is a national trade union center operating since 1955 following the merger of the AFL; founded in 1886 and the CIO; founded in 1935. Between 1959 and 1960 the organization produced about 99 "Americans at Work" films via Norwood Studios. These were released weekly for Americans as a way to provide education on the duties and training required for various industrial jobs. Film opens with workers on the laundry plant floor (:12) operating the press. Quotes from Shakespeare stress the need for clean and neat attire (:16). The feature is presented by the AFL-CIO (:26). A female valet checks a dark stain on a man’s suit (:43). Workers within the laundromat assist customers (1:07). Bags are checked in at the counter (1:09), carted to the back (1:17) and sent down conveyor belts (1:25). Bags are sent to the loading room to delivery stations (1:27). Small garments are washed (1:59) in net bags and tagged. Clothes move onto conveyor belts and elevated baskets (7:12). Giant wash wheels (7:25) were capable of washing 400lbs of wash. A worker slides open the lid of one of these massive washers (2:34). Specialty wheels are used for heavy sheets, bedspreads and table cloths (2:43). An employee empties an overhead basket and bundles drop into the washing machine (3:35). Wet laundry is stuffed into the baskets of the laundry wheel now forming the halves of the extractor drum (4:25). The centrifuge spins out (4:36) the majority of the water. Drums are lifted (5:14) and dumped at the unloading station. Net bags are dumped into small carts and sent for more clothing (5:26). A pair of jeans (5:52) spins on a rotating ironing board. Small garments (6:04) are pressed. Cleans clothes are packaged (6:20). White shirts are pressed (6:41). Modern machinery folds clothes neat (7:52). Protective bags are slipped over the shirts (7:54). Large items are folded in the flat department (8:12). Special techniques jiggle the folds from sheets (8:31). Items are fed into rollers (8:43). A woman smooths a hand iron over delicate garments at the hand pressing department (9:19). Clean laundry is wrapped (9:58) in the wrapping department. Items for the dry-cleaning department get tagged (10:45). Clothing is sent into a tumbler for agitation (11:14). Excess fluids are pulled from a rotating extractor (11:24). A dark stain (11:50) is removed by a spotter. The steam press (12:22) withdraws wrinkles from garments. The clerk returns garments to a customer at the Little Falls Laundromat in New Jersey (12:48). The feature concludes with the AFL-CIO seal (13:19). It was produced by Norwood Studios (13:35). Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we've worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you'd like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxxHdF5tUZw Mirrored from Periscope Film (https://www.youtube.com/@PeriscopeFilm) Sat, 13 Jun 2026 13:21:52 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://peertube.dngr.us https://peertube.dngr.us/lazy-static/avatars/41a6fee9-7f57-42d0-a5fc-5db4f1af2e31.png https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/d7b974e1-69eb-487e-9ac3-666f45a398b8 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://peertube.dngr.us/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.