In 1691, the first English patent in the area of washing machines was granted. In the
January 1752 issue of The Gentleman's Magazine, a
British newspaper, a sketch of an early washing machine emerged. The washing machine design by
Jacob Christian Schäffer was patented in Germany in 1767.
Henry Sidgier received a British
patent for a spinning drum washer in 1782, and Edward Beetham
sold many 'patent washing mills' in England
in the 1790s. James King invented the first drum washing machine in 1851,
Hamilton Smith patented a rotational version in 1858, and Thomas Bradford, a
British
inventor, invented a piece of hugely successful machinery that resembles the contemporary machine in
1868.
