††The iron is an implement with a flat base that is heated for smoothing cloth or clothes. Originally the iron was made of the metal iron. It was heated in a fire. In 1870, Mary Potts invented an iron with a cool handgrip (previously irons had had to be held in a cloth).
The electric iron was the first home electrical appliance. It was invented by Henry W. Seely of New York in 1882. An electric current passed between two carbon rods to produce the heat.
