The evolution of the washing machine, as demonstrated in this barn, is a representative example of this changing domestic life. For many centuries, sailors used to place their clothing in a cloth bag, tie the bag to a rope and throw it overboard, letting the ship drag it for hours. The principle was simple: force water through the clothes to remove the dirt. But in the household before running water and electricity, washing clothes took a staggering amount of labour. To wash, boil and rinse a single load of clothes could take 50 gallons of water, which had to be hand-carried from a pump or well. Handwringing, rubbing and lifting the clothes could expose women to caustic substances in the soaps. The whole process for a household’s laundry could take an entire day or more of backbreaking labour. In 1846, a patented washing machine imitated the human hand moving cloth over a washboard, by using a lever to rub the clothes between two rib surfaces. This machine was sold in the US as late as 1927. The first electric clothes washers, in which a motor rotated the tub, were introduced into America about 1900.