In 1752 The Salisbury and Hampshire Journal carried the following advertisement placed by James Moulton of Aldgate, London, the first husband of Elizabeth Parr, who subsequently married John Blackett, a turner and cooper.
JAMES MOULTON, Cooper and Turner
The corner of Church Row, without Aldgate, London
The most useful machine or Washing Engine of various sizes, made after the completest manner, both for dispatch and strength, ease in the operation, and safety to the finest linen, being adjudged by far superior to any former projections, by the repeated experience of thousands, who are pleased to given them that character, being capable of washing more linen in twenty minutes than can be done without in two hours, being determined to spare no expenses to maintain the character they have so justly acquired, which by some unskilful makers has been prejudiced in the use of so valuable a machine. Printed directions is given with all I sell how to use them, for the benefit of the public in general, and preventing imposition my name and place of abode, which is stamped as under the top.
Captains of ships may be supplied with any quantity on giving timely notice.
N.B. They are made from 14 shillings to 24.
No image of Moulton's washing machine has been discovered but it is likely that, despite the "hype" in Moulton's advertisement, it was little more than something similar to the principle of a coffee plunger. For Moulton to have advertised in a journal presumably mainly circulating so far from London, however, he must have had high hopes for his invention. However, history has not been kind to him and the generally accepted inventor of the washing machine is Edward Beeton, who developed his (presumably superior) machine several decades later than Moulton.