Eighteen-Forties Friday: Bathing Machines... for Him!
A bathing machine was a device popular from roughly the mid-18th century into the early 20th century: a wheeled, covered carriage or stall to provide a private changing area that would be driven into the sea.
Weston Sands in 1840 with Donkeys and Bathing Machines, by W.S. Hardy. (Art UK)
Artistic depictions of bathing machines in use seem to focus on female bathers (and there are a number of naughty prints, predictably) so at one time I thought they were primarily used by women for modesty and privacy.
But the artist John Leech made a number of 1840s cartoons about single male bathers having comic mishaps related to bathing machines. (All from the John Leech sketch archives from Punch magazine.)
"Waiting for a Dip", 1847.
Proprietor of Machine (loq.) [speaking]: "Sorry to keep you such a long time a waitin', sir; but really they stop in such a time that we haven't a machine to bless ourselves with. There's Crumpton's Cottages has been in the water this three-quarters of an hour: and Albion House takes the longest time to dress of any gent I ever see. Oh! Here's Prospect Place a coming hout. Now you can go in, sir."
The man waiting is fashionably dressed with a top hat and cane—this is his beach look?
"An Ocean Swell," 1848.
The Delightful process of dressing in a bathing-machine.
He appears to be buttoning his shirt, his pocket watch inside his hat on a shelf.
"Valuable Hint," 1849.
Always bolt the door of your machine after bathing, or you may be served as poor Mr. Briggs was one day. His disaster is represented above.
Mr. Briggs' unfastened braces hang behind him as he tumbles into the water partially dressed. Considering that English men allegedly bathed in the nude at this time, it's interesting that a woman and child can be seen in the background!
