<P> The first United States Patent titled "Clothes Washing" was granted to Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire in 1797 . Because of the Patent Office fire in 1836, no description of the device survives . Invention of a washing machine is also attributed to Watervliet Shaker Village, as a patent was issued to an Amos Larcom of Watervliet, New York, in 1829, but it is not certain that Larcom was a Shaker . A device that combined a washing machine with a wringer mechanism did not appear until 1843, when Canadian John E. Turnbull of Saint John, New Brunswick patented a "Clothes Washer With Wringer Rolls ." During the 1850s, Nicholas Bennett from the Mount Lebanon Shaker Society at New Lebanon, New York, invented a "wash mill", but in 1858 he assigned the patent to David Parker of the Canterbury Shaker Village, where it was registered as the "Improved Washing Machine". </P> <P> Margaret Colvin invented the Triumph Rotary Washer, which was exhibited in the Women's Pavilion at the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia . At the same Exhibition, the Shakers won a gold medal for their machine . </P> <P> Electric washing machines were advertised and discussed in newspapers as early as 1904 . Alva J. Fisher has been incorrectly credited with the invention of the electric washer . The US Patent Office shows at least one patent issued before Fisher's US patent number 966677 (e.g. Woodrow's US patent number 921195). The "inventor" of the electric washing machine remains unknown . </P> <P> US electric washing machine sales reached 913,000 units in 1928 . However, high unemployment rates in the Depression years reduced sales; by 1932 the number of units shipped was down to about 600,000 . </P>

Where was the first electric washing machine invented