They Dyed Their Washing Blue to Make It White.

The weekly wash: one terraced house, one Monday in the 1920s, from the first bucket before dawn to the last one, and the little bag of blue dye that went into it. In 1913, a group of London women set out to record one ordinary day in the lives of working mothers. Every mother agreed, except on washing day. This is that day: the copper lit in the dark, washing soda so harsh it took the skin off one mother's arms, the dolly tub, the mangle, and why white washing was finished with blue. It also goes back further, to whites washed in wood ash, bracken burned in heaps and rolled into balls for washing, Samuel Pepys's maids up at two in the morning, and a maidservant who died owning one smock. And it ends with the launderette, the washing machine, and the trick with blue that is still in most big-brand washing powders today. Chapters 0:00 The day nobody was allowed to watch 0:43 A 1920s house, and Sunday night 1:48 Soda, and the mother who lost her skin 2:31 Ash, pig dung and urine 3:33 Why every week, and why Monday 4:30 The copper, the dolly and the last bucket 5:25 Why blue makes white 6:16 The mangle, the mice and the thieves 7:44 The really dark day 8:11 The end of wash day Sources include Maud Pember Reeves, Round About a Pound a Week (1913); Margery Spring Rice, Working-Class Wives (1939); the Diary of Samuel Pepys; Celia Fiennes's journeys (1698); Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid (1677); and the Proceedings of the Old Bailey.