Editing Bathing machine (section)

==Use==
The bathing machines in use in [[Margate]], Kent, were described by [[Walley Chamberlain Oulton]] in 1805 as:

{{blockquote|[F]our-wheeled carriages, covered with canvas, and having at one end of them an umbrella of the same materials which is let down to the surface of the water, so that the bather descending from the machine by a few steps is concealed from the public view, whereby the most refined female is enabled to enjoy the advantages of the sea with the strictest delicacy.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Walley Chamberlain Oulton|last=Oulton|first= W. C.|date=1805|title=The Traveller's Guide; or, English Itinerary|volume= II|page= 245|location= Ivy-Lane, London|publisher= James Cundee}}</ref> }}

People entered the small room of the machine while it was on the beach, wearing their street clothing. In the machine they changed into their bathing suit, although men were allowed to [[Nude swimming|bathe nude]] until the 1860s,<ref name="JASA">{{cite web |publisher=Jane Austen Society of Australia |title=Bathing - Jane Austen at the seaside |date=2007-03-26 |url=http://www.jasa.net.au/seaside/Bathing.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130514035307/http://www.jasa.net.au/seaside/Bathing.htm |archive-date=2013-05-14 |quote=Tobias Smollett in The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker. ... on each side a little window above ... 1789: ... over all their windows ... Diary and Letters of Madame d’Arblay, vol 5, pp. 35-6 ... men ... were able to bathe naked. ... make use of the bathing machines for changing ... Prudery did not win out until the 1860s. |url-status=dead |access-date=2017-10-11 }}</ref> placing their street clothes into a raised compartment where they would remain dry.<ref>Kidwell, Claudia. ''Women’s Bathing and Swimming Costume in the United States''. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1968.</ref>

Probably all<!-- all the pictures on Commons, that include the whole machine, show windows --> bathing machines had small windows,<ref name="JASA"/> but one writer in the ''[[The Guardian|Manchester Guardian]]'' of May 26, 1906 considered them "ill-lighted" and wondered why bathing machines were not improved with a [[skylight]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Evelyn |last=Sharp |title=How to dress in the water |date=1906-05-26 |newspaper=[[The Guardian|Manchester Guardian]] |url=http://www.guardiancentury.co.uk/1899-1909/Story/0,6051,126381,00.html |quote=ill-lighted |access-date=2009-12-28 |archive-date=2008-08-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080827175549/http://www.guardiancentury.co.uk/1899-1909/Story/0,6051,126381,00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The machine would be wheeled or slid into the water. The most common machines had large wide wheels and were propelled in and out of the surf by a horse, or a pair of horses, with a driver. Less common were machines pushed in and out of the water by human power. Some resorts had wooden rails into the water for the wheels to roll on, and a few had bathing machines pulled in and out of the sea using cables propelled by a steam engine.

Once in the water, the occupants disembarked from the sea side down steps into the water. Many machines had doors front and back; those with only one door would be backed into the sea or need to be turned around. It was considered essential that the machine blocked any view of the bather from the shore. Some machines were equipped with a canvas tent lowered from the seaside door, sometimes capable of being lowered to the water, giving the bather greater privacy.
Some resorts employed a '''dipper''', a strong person of the same sex who would assist the bather in and out of the sea. Some dippers were said to push bathers into the water, then yank them out, considered part of the experience.<ref name="Walton1983">{{cite book|last=Walton|first=John K. |title=The English Seaside Resort: A Social History, 1750-1914|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9VmlQgAACAAJ|year=1983|publisher=Leicester University Press|isbn=978-0-312-25527-5}}</ref>

Bathing machines would often be equipped with a small flag which could be raised by the bather as a signal to the driver that they were ready to return to shore.

<gallery widths="200px" heights="160px">
File:Bathing place in Cardigan Bay, near Aberystwith.jpeg|Sea bathing in mid [[Wales]] {{circa|1800}}. Several bathing machines can be seen.
Image:MermaidsAtBrighton.jpg|''Mermaids at [[Brighton]]'' swim behind their bathing machines in this engraving by [[William Heath (artist)|William Heath]], {{circa| 1829}}.
Image:BathingMachineDontBeAfraid.jpg|Man and woman in swimsuits, c. 1910. The woman is exiting a bathing machine. Once mixed-sex bathing became socially acceptable, the days of the bathing machine were numbered.
</gallery>