Home automation: Vacuum cleaner, X10, Dishwasher, Washing machine, ZigBee, Window blind, Home automation for the elderly and disabled, Control4, Responsive architecture, Z-Wave, Insteon, Domestic robot, C-Bus, Ember, KNX, SM4All, LinuxMCE, LonWorks, Timer

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 76. Chapters: Vacuum cleaner, X10, Dishwasher, Washing machine, ZigBee, Window blind, Home automation for the elderly and disabled, Control4, Responsive architecture, Z-Wave, Insteon, Domestic robot, C-Bus, Ember, KNX, SM4All, LinuxMCE, LonWorks, Timer, Dynalite, OpenWebNet, OpenHAN, Bticino, Vantage Controls, Daintree Networks, ONE-NET, Lighting control system, OpenTherm, Crestron Electronics, Comparison of domestic robots, Remotec, MiWi, Universal powerline bus, Smarthome, IObridge, Lagotek, E-Home Automation, Home Automation, Inc., Opnode, XPL Protocol, StarDraw, Shifra Smart Homes, HomeRF, Z-URC, X10 Firecracker, Bus SCS, HomeLink Wireless Control System, Ironman, Universal Home API, Clipsal C-Bus, IEC 61030, Marata Vision, European Home Systems Protocol, CHAIN, Intelligent Home Control, Equip'baie. Excerpt: A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, or washer) is a machine designed to wash laundry, such as clothing, towels and sheets. The term is mostly applied only to machines that use water as the primary cleaning solution, as opposed to dry cleaning (which uses alternative cleaning fluids, and is performed by specialist businesses) or even ultrasonic cleaners. Laundering by hand involves beating and scrubbing cloth. It is hard work even with manufactured aids like washboards and soap to help. Clothes washer technology developed as a way to reduce the drudgery of this scrubbing and rubbing process by providing an open basin or sealed container with paddles or fingers to automatically agitate the clothing. The earliest machines were hand-operated. As electricity was not commonly available until at least 1930, some early machines were operated by a low-speed single-cylinder hit and miss gasoline engine. By the mid-1850s steam-driven commercial laundry machinery was on sale in the USA and Great Britain. Technological advances in machinery for commercial and institutional laundries proceeded faster than domestic washer design for several decades, especially in the UK. In the US there was more emphasis on developing machines for washing at home, as well as machines for the commercial laundry services which were widely used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Because water often had to be carried, heated on a fire for washing, then poured into the tub, the warm soapy water was precious and would be reused over and over, first to wash the least soiled clothing, then to wash progressively dirtier laundry. While the earliest machines were constructed from wood, later machines made of metal permitted a fire to burn below the washtub, to keep the water warm throughout the day's washing. Removal of soap and water from the clothing after washing was originally a separate process. After rinsing, the soaking wet clothing would be formed into a roll and twisted by ha