††††The first car wash appeared in the United States in the 1930s. It was simply a conveyor along which a car was pulled while gangs of workmen cleaned it by hand. One group applied detergent while another, further along the line, rinsed it, and so on. The space required and the labour costs made this type of car wash an expensive operation. The first fully automatic car washing machine was made in the United States in 1938, though they did not appear in Europe until a German firm began production separately in 1964. Since then a number of firms have produced their own variations of the car wash.
A typical car wash has three large cylindrical rollers, made of flexible polythene strands, that travel past the car. As the rollers rotate at speed, water and detergent sprays wash and rinse the car. The rollers "feel" their way round obstacles such as wing mirrors. After the brushes have cleaned the car, it can be driven away to let the water dry naturally or, on more expensive machines, automatic dryers may be used.
