How did they iron clothes when they didn't have electricity? Easy: with an iron heated by the embers taken from the fireplace or from a wood stove!

This object not only used in Abruzzo, had been very well conceived, but presented a series of disadvantages.

The embers, which were placed in the iron from the top, had to be rather large to avoid their loss from the openings (actually holes) located at the iron's lower border. These openings served to circulate air inside the iron during ironing so that the embers in the iron would be kept hot. If the air circulation were insufficient, it could have been increased by opening a "valve" located in the back of the iron.

It is well known that ironing has never been a pleasant task, but to do it with an iron so heavy made it even a more demanding chore. Without mentioning the ashes and the small bits of embers which inevitably fell from the openings of the iron. How many times the homemakers must have washed again the clothes, or sewn them up in places burned by the embers? And then the wrinkle free clothes didn't even exist!