The bathing machine was a device, popular in the 19th century, which was intended to allow people to wade in the ocean at beaches without violating Victorian notions of modesty. Bathing machines were in the form of roofed and walled wooden carts which would be rolled into the sea. Some had solid wooden walls; others had canvas walls over a wooden frame.

The bathing machine was part of sea-bathing etiquette which was more rigorously enforced upon women than men, but was expected to be observed by people of both sexes among those who wished to be considered "proper". Especially in Britain, men and women wishing to enjoy the sea were usually segregated into separate areas, so that nobody of the opposite sex might catch sight of them in their bathing suits, which (although extremely modest by more modern standards) were not considered proper clothing to be seen in by the general public.

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Use
People would enter the small room of the bathing machine while it was on the dry beach, wearing their street-clothing. In the privacy of the machine they would then change into their bathing suit, placing their street clothes into a raised compartment where the clothing would remain dry.

Mermaids at Brighton swim behind their bathing machines in this engraving by William Heath, c. 1829.
The compartments of bathing machines had no windows, as their purpose was assurance of privacy. They were notoriously dark inside. A writer in the Manchester Guardian of May 26, 1906 wondered why bathing machines never had a glass skylight in the roof to allow in a bit of light.

The bathing machine would then be wheeled or slid down into the water. The most common forms of bathing 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 bathing machines pushed in and out of the water by human power. Some very popular resorts had wooden rails put out into the water for the wheels to roll on; a few had their bathing machines pulled in and out by attached cables propelled by a steam engine.