Mangle
Mangle is a Victorian era clothes wringer, a heavy machine featuring long flat wooden boards and large rollers turned by a hand crank. Wet laundry was pressed flat between the heavy boards and rollers to squeeze out water and smooth out wrinkles. Pip compares the soldiers' massive wooden bedstead to a mangle without machinery. It emphasizes the uncomfortable and harsh conditions prevailed in the military barracks of those times. Magles were effective labour-saving appliances used in domestic household laundry from 17th century all the way into mid 20th century. Before modern washing machines and dryers doing the laundry was an exhausting multi-day chore. The mangle served wringing out water and pressing fabric smooth. Among the wealthy English elites, civil servants military officers and merchants in India, large mechanical mangles were directly imported from Britain. These were operated by traditional dhobi caste. But British families rarely de...