Besides their skill at building furniture and buildings, the Shakers were also talented inventors. (This does make one wonder if celibacy creates strengths in other areas!)

Besides improving on various types of machinery, they invented the flat broom, seed packets, metal pen nibs and metal chimney caps, an improved plow, the circular saw, and a prototype of a washing machine called a washing mill. (Some of these are discussed at the Hancock Village museum).

The washing line was another, and this really interested me – they also invented a substance that helped clothing being washed and ironed from wrinkling. This was almost 150 years before modern technology caught up.

As you can see from the list, the inventions covered the gamut and were not restricted to primarily male tasks. Some, like the future washing machine and the non-wrinkle powder, were later marketed by the outside world as ‘labor saving’ devices. This community valued work of all kinds.

I find them endlessly fascinating.