Above is an example of laundry machinery designed to improve efficiency by reducing the amount of manual labor involved in untangling linens in the wash aisle. Whimsically dubbed the detanglamacallit,’ this machine was installed in the early ’70s by Oregon Linen Rental (OLR) in Portland, OR. Co-owner Tom Georges (a former Linen Supply Association of America Board member who passed away in 2004) outlined the system as follows, “One problem we noticed with the large flatwork coming out of the tumbler is that in spite of tumbling, the pieces tended to be tangled together,” said Georges in an October 1972 ...