An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology part 96. This one of a kind encyclopedia presents the entire field of technology from rudimentary agricultural tools to communication satellites in this first of its kind reference source. Following an introduction that discusses basic tools, devices, and mechanisms, the chapters are grouped into five parts that provide detailed information on materials, power and engineering, transportation, communication and calculation, and technology and society, revealing how different technologies have together evolved to produce enormous changes in the course of history | PART FIVE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY which the folded linen was placed. Pressure was maintained upon the boards with the aid of a wooden turnscrew. During the sixteenth century the mangling board and roller came into general use. The idea spread from Holland Denmark and northern Germany the word mangle derives from the Dutch and Middle High German mangelen which itself stemmed from the ancient Greek word for an engine of war indeed the later box mangle resembled a mighty weapon. The material was wrapped round the roller itself about 50cm 1ft 8in long which was placed upon a flat table. The mangling board a flat piece of wood about 66cm 2ft 2in long and 8cm 3in wide with a handle on top and then passed backwards and forwards over the roller until the fabric was smoothed. This method produced quite a high standard of pressing and was in use until well into the nineteenth century. The idea was exported by Dutch colonists particularly to North America and South Africa. The final pressing stage in Europe came with the development of the mangle which took place during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The process was an almost dry one. The heavy cumbersome box mangle was an eighteenth-century version intended primarily for use in large houses or communal laundries where there was a great quantity of linen to be pressed. The mangle was a large wooden box 2m 6ft 6in long and 1m 3ft 3in each wide and deep filled with stones. The box was part of a wooden framework standing on the floor. The damp clean linen was wrapped round wooden rollers which were then placed under the box by means of a lifting device and a crank handle was then turned to make the heavy box trundle backwards and forwards over the rollers. A flywheel helped to overcome the inertia of starting the box in motion and there was a system of stops to prevent the box running off its bed on to the floor. After about 1850 the box mangle was slowly replaced by a standing design smaller and easier to operate with
