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Post Laundry |
| This is a story of a
shirt. Multiply it by 60,000 and you have the story of one's days
work in the Camp Atterbury Laundry. For that's the number of pieces of clothing handled by the laundry staffed by 145 civilians and 262 prisoners of war, who work on a three shift, 24-hour schedule. But to get back to the shirt. Your shirt. What happens to it from the time you toss it, dirty and wrinkled, into a barracks bag and leave it at your supply room, until you pick it up, two or three days later, neatly cleaned, pressed and folded? Follow us through the laundry and see. First of all your supply sergeant puts your bag, along with all the others from your company, into a truck and takes it to the laundry, where it is dumped into huge bins to await its turn to be cleaned. In due time your bag is taken from the bin, and emptied of its contents. There's your shirt, on top of the pile. It is picked up by a young lady, who checks your pin number, pushes some buttons on what looks like an adding machine, and stamps your number on your shirt. 23 Washing Machines Then she puts it on a conveyor, and it moves down the line, where a man picks it up and throws it into a giant washing machine, along with many others. There are 23 such machines, and he may throw it in any one: don't worry; it won't get lost. After 50 minutes in one of these whirling vats, filled with steaming, soapy water, your shirt is put into a smaller, tub-like machine called an extractor. where it is submitted to 15 minutes of whirling and suction, which removes nearly all the wetness from it. It is then taken to another department for individual pressing and folding, by hand. And then it is sent to the final assembly booth, where a young lady has already set aside a small bin, with your mark number on it. It is laid in the bin, along with your other clothes, most of which it hasn't seen since leaving the extractor. For only shirts, pants and handkerchiefs are individually pressed. All the rest - with the exception of socks - goes from the extractor into another machine called a tumbler. where it gets a 15-minute hot air treatment for final drying. The socks, which would shrink in the tumbler, are individually dried on special foot-shaped heaters in another part of the plant but they'll end up in the same little bin at the end. Ready for Wrapping Now everything is neatly cleaned and folded. and ready to be returned. All that remains is the wrapping and checking out. and your clothing, individually packaged, is on its way back to your supply sergeant. Lt. R. H. Jernigan, laundry officer, and Wyatt L. Cargal, superintendent, are quite pleased with their system, but they say there is one weak spot which you, not they can correct. If you want to swap shirts with your buddy, please remove the old mark number, as it is less likely that your shirt will be returned to your bin if it has two or more pin numbers on it. Mr. Cargal suggests either removing the old number, or sending your swapped clothing with the original owner's laundry. Otherwise you may end tip signing a Statement of Charges, instead of going to town in a brand clean outfit. |
Individual treatment of clothing is the keynote of the Atterbury laundry. Here socks are dried separately on a special foot-shaped heater, designed to prevent shrinking. Drying them are Maxine Losey, Franklin (left) and Rhonda Stribling, Burney. |
Left: Getting the laundry dried
is the job of Mrs. Ona Pearcy, Nineveh, shown putting clothing into the
tumbler, a whirling, hot-air chamber which dries the garments completely in
15 minutes. |
Shirts and pants are pressed individually by Tennie Phillips, Seymour (left) and Thelma Johnson, Nashville. |
Shown folding the garments are Rosemary Wayts, Edinburg (left) and Mrs. Nancy Updike, Hope. By this time the clothing's trip is just about done. |
Beginning its long journey the laundry is received here in huge bins to await removal to the marking station. Here Fred Camden, Nineveh, is moving a load out, under the supervision of Mrs. Bertha Sullivan, Edinburg. |
Why Things Don't Get Lost. Rita Thomas, Nineveh, |
Responsible for the swift and efficient laundry service at Atterbury are Lt, R. 11. Jernigan, laundry officer (left), and Mr. Wyatt L. Cargil. superintendent. |
Having been gathered into individual bundles, the packages are ready for wrapping here by Jean McCoy, Bloomington (left) and Mrs. Neil Panich, Hopkinsville, Ky. |
Robert Clampitt, Franklin (left) and James Perry, Franklin, deposit the clothing in one of the plant's 23 huge washing machines. Hardly the thing for mother's basement, but ideal for a laundry handling 60,000 pieces of clothing a day. |
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Page last revised
11/07/2012 |
