For many of us, history is something that we took in school and we probably forgot more about what we learned in the class than what we remembered. It may not be the favorite subject for all of us, but there are definitely some fascinating things that can be learned from it.

Take, for instance, this intriguing item in the picture below. It’s a piece of history that was once used by millions of people, but isn’t quite recognizable today. In fact, we’d bet that most folks wouldn’t have a clue about what it is.

In case you haven’t pieced it together yet, this artifact has to do with laundry. Doing laundry is something that has been around for thousands of years, though the methods have evolved drastically over time.

Many years ago, people used to take their dirty clothes down to the river and beat them against rocks to get them clean. These days, we just toss them into a machine, press a few buttons, and in an hour, our clothes are fresh and clean. The nifty little device shown in these pictures made laundry day much easier for people in the past. Considering all the steps that were involved—hauling water, boiling it, washing, rinsing, wringing the clothes out, and then finally drying them—it was quite the process.