Laundromat

NASA Mission Control?

You are not looking at Nuclear Weapons Launch Console.  This is not the control panel for a Hydroelectric Dam.  This is a Danish Laundromat Control Panel.

I helped Mary do laundry this morning (I drove the car, and carried the laundry, that was the extent of my "helping").  As I watched Mary at work, I saw that all the steps required to wash our clothing had become second nature to her.  It certainly wasn't to me.

The concept is the same in both the USA and Denmark.  Bring in dirty clothes.  Deposit  money.  Leave with clean clothes.  That's where all similarities end.

A typical USA laundromat experience.

Arrive with dirty clothes, soap, and fabric softener.  Put dirty clothes in washing machine with soap and fabric softener.  Deposit coins.  Push button and wait.  When done, put wet, clean clothes into drier.  Deposit coins.  Push button and wait.  When done, fold clean, dry clothes and go home.


A typical Danish Laundromat experience.

Arrive with dirty clothes.

Read all of the instructions.  (If anyone knows me, reading instructions is not high on my list of things I do well.   Thank God Mary reads does, though I am still not sure how she read these instructions.)

Soap, fabric softener, and bleach is included in the price of washing your clothes.  Put dirty clothes in washing machine.  Go to the Soap despenser and get your soap and fabric softener.

Put it in.

Go to Mission Control and push random buttons and put money into various slots.  (I have no idea how Mary figured this out.  It involved multiple buttons, coins, levers, calculations, and reading instructions in Danish.  I was completely lost.)

Once enough buttons are pushed and coins are inserted, go to the washing machine and push START.  (I was allowed to do this).

The machine started and the clothes washed!

Interesting bit of information now.  Danish laundry mat washing machines do not have a spin cycle.  When the washing is complete, the wet clothing goes into another machine, the CENTRIFUGE!

I took the wet clothes out of the washing machine and put them into the centrifuge.  Mary went to Mission control, pushed buttons, did further computations, and deposited money.  I was then told to push the start button.

If anyone has been near a large jet engine as it was starting, they would understand the sound I heard.  Slowly winding up to takeoff speed.  Just as the machine was about to break free of the concrete floor, it stopped.  Mary told me to push the button on the top and move the clothes to the dryer.

I put the clothes (now only slightly damp after spinning at 100000 RPM) in the dryer.  Mary did further button pushing, lever pulling, coin insertion, and calculations (at one point I swear I saw a slide rule in use) and told me to push the start button.

The clothes dried!

We folded our clean, dry clothes and went home.

But I swear as we left, I saw a glow in the distance, like a missile launch.  Maybe that console did more than we thought.