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One problem with the sad iron was that it heated unevenly. One spot might become hot enough to scorch clothes while another spot was too cool to press out wrinkles. Even worse, the handle would heat up along with the iron itself.
Many ironers burned themselves because the handle was almost as hot as the bottom of the iron! Mary Potts of Ottumwa, Iowa was an ordinary nineteen-year-old when she solved the hot-handle problem in 1870. She built a cardboard base around the body of an iron and filled it with plaster of paris. This formed a shell around the metal and kept the handle much cooler. Potts went on to develop a wooden handle that could be taken off while the sad iron was heating. The ironer reattached the handle when the iron was ready to use.
At first Potts wasn't as good at selling irons as she was at inventing them. She went bankrupt in Iowa and nearly gave up. But Potts still believed in her sad iron, which she now called "Mrs. Potts' Cold Handle Iron." In 1876 she moved to Philadelphia, just in time for the Centennial World's Fair, where new inventions were featured. Potts's Cold Handle Iron was a hit at the Women's Pavilion at the fair and became a bestseller until the 1900s.
Copyright ©1998 by Elaine Marie Alphin