Maintaining

and Repairing
Flat Iron
History Of Flat Iron
 Before Electricity
• The use of hot, flat surfaces to
smooth out fabrics and reduce
creasing dates back thousands of
years and can be found in many
early civilizations. In China, for
instance, hot charcoal in metal
pans was used.
• Smoothing Stones have been
around since the 8th and 9th
century and are known as the
earliest western ironing
devices, looking somewhat like
large mushrooms.
 The Electric Iron 
• On June 6, 1882, Henry W. Seely of
New York City patented the electric
iron, at the time called an electric
flatiron. Early electric irons
developed around the same time in
France used a carbon arc to create
heat, however, this proved unsafe
and commercially unsuccessful.
• In 1892, hand irons using 
electrical resistance were introduced
by Crompton and Co. and the
General Electric Company, allowing
for the regulation of the iron’s heat.
As the popularity of handheld
electric irons took off, sales were
propelled even more by the
introduction during the early 1950s
of electric steam irons.