Fort McCoy ArtiFACT: Sad iron and trivet

Prior to modern electric irons, many households used sad irons (also known as flat or smoothing irons) to remove wrinkles and unwanted creases from fabric. “Sad” is an Old English word of Germanic origin meaning “heavy, dense, and solid,” which is a fairly accurate term since the sad iron was constructed out of a solid piece of cast iron.

It is uncertain when people started ironing fabric, but sometime during the first century B.C., the Chinese were using hot metal for ironing. They filled pans with hot coals or stones and pressed the coal- or stone-filled pan over the stretched fabric to smooth it out.

Northern Europeans used stones, glass, and wood to remove wrinkles from fabric into the mid-19th century.

The earliest known flat iron appeared during the late Middle Ages and was forged from metal by blacksmiths. During this period, the handles of the flat iron were also constructed of metal and since the irons were heated on an open fire or a stove, the use of a thick potholder, rag, or glove to grab the hot iron from the heat source was a necessity.

In 1870, a 19-year-old Iowa woman named Mary Florence Potts invented and patented the wooden-handled sad iron. A wooden handle allowed the handle to stay cool while the metal base was heated. She also improved the shape of the sad iron by making it double-pointed, which allowed the person ironing to use the iron in both directions rather than one direction like the triangular shaped sad irons.

Her sad iron was also constructed of hollow rather than solid metal, which allowed for it to be filled with a poor heat conducting material such as cement, clay, or plaster of Paris. This prevented heat from radiating upwards to the iron operator.

The following year, in 1871, Mary patented yet another improvement to the sad iron. This time she enhanced the sad iron by making a universal, detachable wooden handle with three iron bases of different sizes which were meant for specific ironing tasks. This system allowed for a cooled base to be switched out with one of the bases waiting on the heat source.

This made for an efficient ironing system with a continuous and steady workflow. Her 1871 sad iron kit of detachable wooden handle, three bases, and a metal trivet (the sad iron is placed on this to protect the fabric and prevent surfaces from burning when the sad iron is not in use) was manufactured until 1951.

Sad irons were the largest and heaviest of flat irons weighing anywhere from 5 to 9 pounds. The weight of the sad iron held heat longer and provided the necessary heft needed to remove wrinkles and creases from the fabric. Sad irons were often triangular to make it easier to iron around buttons. The bottom of the iron was flat and polished since it was the surface that touched the fabric, while the top had a handle.

There was sad iron (pictured with this article) that was recovered from a post-contact Euro-American homestead in a 2015 Fort McCoy archaeological dig. It is triangular, weighs 6.75 pounds, and is missing the handle. The iron base is of solid construction and the missing handle was most likely metal too.

Metal trivets were used to rest the sad iron upon when repositioning the fabric or if not in use. The trivet would protect the fabric and prevent surfaces from burning. Trivets were made from cast iron, brass, or steel. They had a wide range of intricate designs making them a desired collectible. The trivet pictured here was recovered in 2013 from a different post-contact Euro-American site than the sad iron.

Ironing at home was not for the faint of the heart as it was a very hot, difficult, and sometimes dangerous job. Most homesteads would have had at least two irons in use at a time. For instance, while one iron was in use, the other iron would be heating up so it would be ready to go when the one in use had cooled too much and was no longer effective at smoothing out wrinkles and creases. This created a very effective system for ironing.

One had to be careful not to burn oneself, especially their fingers, while using a sad iron. Another obstacle to ironing before the modern electric iron was to not track soot or ash onto the clothing they were ironing. The irons needed constant upkeep including cleaning, sand papering, and polishing to make the iron effective, and to prevent the iron from rusting.

All archaeological work conducted at Fort McCoy was sponsored by the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.

Visitors and employees are reminded they should not collect artifacts on Fort McCoy or other government lands and leave the digging to the professionals.

Any individual who excavates, removes, damages, or otherwise alters or defaces any post-contact or pre-contact site, artifact, or object of antiquity on Fort McCoy is in violation of federal law.

The discovery of any archaeological artifact should be reported to the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Work Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.

(Article prepared by the Fort McCoy Archaeological Team which includes the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Work Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch and their partners with the Colorado State University’s Center for the Environmental Management of Military Lands.)