A clothes iron, also called a flatiron or smoothing iron, is a small handheld appliance that is heated and used to press clothing to remove wrinkles by loosening the bonds between fibers so that fabric holds a new, flat shape as it cools. The American inventor Henry W. Seely patented the electric flatiron on June 6, 1882, an early design that used electrical resistance heating but weighed around 15 pounds and took a long time to heat; an earlier carbon-arc-heated iron reportedly appeared in France around 1880, though historians regard that claim as doubtful.
Facts
Patent or First-Use DateSourced to the subject's own account YearSourced to the subject's own account SignificanceSourced to the subject's own accountSeely's electric flatiron weighed almost 15 pounds and took a long time to heat, but its resistive heating element eventually superseded the combustion, charcoal and other fuel-heated irons used for centuries before it. 1 FAQs
Why are old clothes irons called sad irons?
Sad here is an old word meaning solid; a sad iron was a solid slab of cast iron heated on a fire or stove.
From the 17th century, sadirons or sad irons began to be used. The word sad comes from Middle English and meant solid, and it stayed in use in English through the 1800s. Sad irons were thick slabs of cast iron, triangular and with a handle, heated in a fire or on a stove, and they were also called flat irons. A laundry worker could keep a cluster of them heating from a single source and swap in a hot one as the iron in use cooled down.
Sources
1. Clothes Iron (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHistory and Development section, Seely patent sentence, Wikipedia article Clothes iron
An 'electric flatiron' was invented by American Henry W. Seely and patented on June 6, 1882.
History and Development section, weight sentence, Wikipedia article Clothes iron
It weighed almost 15 pounds (6.8 kg) and took a long time to heat.
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