the incline of the ironing board 12 at the commencement of the test run the start photosensor 42 senses a traverse across a scanned line 52 that transverses a guide path of the standard iron structure 14 to sense passage of the standard iron structure 14 along the path across the line 52 to sense a start and correspondingly the finish photosensor 44 senses a traverse across a scanned line 54 that transverses the iron 14 guide path to sense passage of the standard iron structure 14 along the path across the line 54 to sense a finish time the photosensors 42 44 are connected to a timer 46 that registers an elapsed time from the start and finish sensed by the photosensors 42 44 the test apparatus 10 of the invention provides a mechanism to quickly and reproducibly testing cloths for ease of ironing in operation board 12 is positioned to a set incline and then the iron 14 is permitted to glide down the inclined board 12 between the start photoelectric sensor 42 and the finish photoelectric sensor 44 a comparison of elapsed time between start and finish of cloth samples provides a measure of relative ease of ironing of the cloth samples the following example is illustrative and should not be construed as a limitation on the scope of the claims unless a limitation is specifically recited in these runs the test set up used was the same as depicted in the figures of the runs a commercial grade ironing board was securely mounted in a framework that allowed for multi inclined positioning the.