Automatic Laundry, 1877

A young army officer’s wife gave this account of a visit to Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park in 1877:

Each and everyone took the occasion to have their laundry cleaned, much needed after a long and soapless trip … A sight it was to behold, to see the felt hats of the men and flannels difficult to tell of what color they were, thrown into the boiling vat, where after a few forthwarning and premonitory signs of another eruption … the hats and almost entire wardrobes shot high aloft, bleached and cleaned to suit the wearer to his entire satisfaction and astonished admiration.