Abstract: A tunnel-type commerical-duty washing machine has a horizontally elongated housing subdivided by a succession of partitions into a succession of compartments each provided with a generally cylindrical foraminous drum. Each drum is provided with a respective foraminous scoop formed from a first generally cylindrical section having an edge attached to the outer wall and extending between the end walls of the drum and a second generally frustoconical section forming a continuation of the cylindrical section and having a side edge joined to one of the end walls over a major arc of the periphery of an aperture in one of the end walls. Thus the drums may be oscillated back and forth to agitate clothing, but when rotated through greater than a predetermined angle the scoop will pick up the articles of clothing in the drum and displace them axially out of the drum.