Bath and Laundry Services

BATH AND LAUNDRY SERVICES occupies a significant place among the sectors of modern public economy in populated areas. In recent times, bath and laundry services have acquired the value of a necessary sanitary factor in the general work of protecting public health. However, bath and laundry services did not immediately develop into a unified system of bathhouse and laundry establishments that complement each other and operate in direct connection. Even in major centers where bathhouses and laundries exist, their operations usually proceed separately. While bathhouse service (under the influence of population needs) developed and improved, when municipal, public, and private bathhouses (see) were created with high throughput and good technical equipment, laundry service (even in cities) until recently maintained the character of small-scale private enterprises of an artisanal type. The population in mass was served in laundry matters through the practice of 'self-laundering.' This situation was partly facilitated by the widespread practice in urban housing construction of equating apartments with bathrooms, and in rural areas with the construction of primitive house bathhouses. In the poorest part of the urban working population, however, there was always a felt need to combine bathhouse and laundry services, which practically often manifested itself in the population using bathhouses for washing laundry during their visits. With the development of public life and the emergence (as a result) of various institutions and establishments bringing together large collectives, the organization of bathhouse service naturally created the need to attach to it laundry service as an additional element. Therefore, examples of the organization of bath and laundry services for serving corresponding population groups can currently be found in such organizations (hospitals, boarding schools, closed educational institutions, etc.). The significance of bath and laundry services as a system for serving the population through interconnected bathhouse and laundry installations became especially defined during the period of the imperialist war of 1914-18. Bath and laundry services (and the related disinfection service) was a sanitary factor of high importance during the period of fighting against parasitic epidemic diseases in the armies of all countries. The spread of epidemic typhus and relapsing fever in the troops necessitated the construction of both stationary bathhouses and laundries with disinfestation chambers, and mobile field and railway bath and laundry detachments, which ensured the possibility for troops to bathe while simultaneously changing linen, turning in dirty linen for washing, and having outer clothing disinfested. The proper functioning of such institutions required their construction according to the following scheme. Movement of bathers: undressing room, barbershop, bathhouse (soap room, or steam room, or shower), dressing room. Movement of linen: bathhouse undressing room, receiving and sorting room at the laundry, laundry (soaking, boiling, washing, rinsing, drying, mending, ironing or pressing), clean linen storage, dressing room at the bathhouse. Movement of clothing: bathhouse undressing room, receiving room at the disinfestation chamber, chamber, dressing room at the bathhouse. The simultaneous service of contingents in bathhouse and laundry terms is ensured in bath and laundry installations by the presence in them, to replace linen turned in for washing, reserves of linen created on the principle of anonymized sets of linen for the served troops. The organization of bath and laundry services in the army formed the basis for carrying out the sanitary processing of military contingents requiring it, since the system of construction and equipment of bath and laundry installations on the principle of a sanitary lock ensured the radical liberation from parasites and, consequently, from infection of both people passing through the bathhouse and their clothing items; it also freed them from the need for self-laundering and maintaining their linen in order by their own means. The establishment of such institutions in cities should be connected with isolation hospitals. Abroad, they are sometimes combined with public showers.

F. Bernhof.