As a child, I helped my mother hang laundry in our backyard in Tamaqua, Pa., a small coal-mining town. My job was handing up the clothespins. When everything was dry, I helped her fold the sheets in a ...

I need to feed you a line — a clothesline, in this case, which, without fear of contradiction, remains the most energy-efficient way of drying laundry. The humble clothesline is, however, not the best ...