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Thread Number: 75713
/ Tag: Vintage Automatic Washers
Historic photograph - Cornell laundry lab |
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| Post# 995404 5/27/2018 at 23:15 (2,153 days old) by bradross (New Westminster, BC., Canada) | ||
Came across this fantastic photo of the laundry lab of the home economics department, Cornell University. Can anybody estimate the date? I'd say early to mid-fifties.
Perhaps somebody can identify the front-loader in the foreground. Looks like a Westy in the middle, and then an unknown top-loader (maybe a Kenmore?), plus the Easy Spindrier and I believe a Monitor wringer in the front.
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| Post# 995407 , Reply# 1 5/28/2018 at 00:01 (2,153 days old) by arris (Rochester New York) | ||
Pretty neat picture | ||
Post# 995413 , Reply# 2 5/28/2018 at 01:36 (2,153 days old) by Launderess  (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Actually have a book from early 1900's 
Put out in concert with the Cornell University home economics laundry lab.
www.etsy.com/listing/4599... Though seems hilarious to us today, yes, females actually went to college to get degrees in home economics, and much serious study was given over to laundry. In 1969 the New York State College of Home Economics reorganized and renamed the New York State College of Human Ecology. Likely in view of changing roles for women by the 1970's with more on the horizon after Title IX and other laws came into affect. | ||
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Post# 995416 , Reply# 3 5/28/2018 at 05:30 (2,153 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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Mystery automatics | ||
| Post# 995419 , Reply# 4 5/28/2018 at 07:00 (2,153 days old) by wft2800 (Leatherhead, Surrey) | ||
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That FL is definitely Bendix, I'd estimate the date as 1951, '53 at the outside. | ||
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Post# 995420 , Reply# 5 5/28/2018 at 07:06 (2,153 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Not sure of exact year | ||
| Post# 995435 , Reply# 7 5/28/2018 at 11:56 (2,152 days old) by golittlesport (California) | ||
That seems like a fun class -- doing laundry
I believe the top load automatic is a Whirlpool. The Kenmore, although very similar, had a more rounded cabinet where the control knobs are located. The Whirlpool had a flatter surface at the controls. Also there would have been the indentation of a handle on the lid for a Kenmore, the Whirlpool had a pop-up lid and you can see the lid release button on the middle of the control panel in the photo.
Also note that it appears the Westinghouse has no window in the door. Could it be a clothes dryer? I've read that Westinghouse had a builders-grade washer and dryer set that had no windows in the doors. Maybe this is a BOL machine like that. I've never seen a Westy Laundromat without a window, but had seen single-knob dryers without them. | ||
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Post# 995437 , Reply# 8 5/28/2018 at 12:07 (2,152 days old) by appnut (TX) |
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Post# 995443 , Reply# 9 5/28/2018 at 12:50 (2,152 days old) by whirlykenmore78 (Prior Lake MN (GMT-0500 CDT.)) |
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Very cool! | ||
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Post# 995446 , Reply# 10 5/28/2018 at 13:29 (2,152 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD) |
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The early WH washer had no door boot. The glass door on the tub sealed to the tub and had the dispenser chute at the top of it. Much like an ASKO, the solid outer door hid the glass door. | ||
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Post# 995458 , Reply# 11 5/28/2018 at 16:47 (2,152 days old) by Jetcone (Schenectady-Home of Calrods,Monitor Tops,Toroid Transformers) |
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Thats a Bendix up front
And I think its the early Gyromatic so its not a bolt down. That would put this at 1952-3 I think. The early Gyros’ had that little vent at the bottom center were suds could come out.
The woman at the Westinghouse is reaching down so far I bet thats a dryer! That Monitor was crazy, who bought those?? | ||
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Post# 995462 , Reply# 12 5/28/2018 at 17:06 (2,152 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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When my place was a camp back in the 60's, we had an identical Monitor for kids clothes, towels, etc. Alot easier than lugging dirty stuff back home to town. It had a rather small capacity but washed quite well. It was on the front porch and could gravity drain right off it. I always got roped into cranking the wringer. Monitors were great for apartment dwellers that could not have a regular machine
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Post# 995521 , Reply# 13 5/29/2018 at 05:20 (2,152 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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| Post# 995537 , Reply# 14 5/29/2018 at 09:42 (2,151 days old) by mickeyd (Hamburg NY) | ||
1955, give or take ~
When the first hand-cranked Hoover Wringer came out, whose 70th? anniversary Chestermikeuk celebrated in a splendid thread last month, a machine sold in the millions to our U.K. relatives, isn't the Monitor pretty much a clone of it?
The chrome rings on the Easy departed some time in the mid-to-late 50's, not sure of exact year. The Top Loader is indeed the Whirlpool that buzzes and flips its lid at cycle completion; my neighbor Tom Graff had one and let me watch his Thursday evening wash night when I was a single-digit lad. His lid latch had a light and the machine was a Suds-Miser, and thus began my fascination with this miraculous engineering feat which took Whirlpool a few years to tweak to perfection and which was widely imitated but never surpassed by any other manufacturer. . Love the Oxydol. 'Twas a big deal back then, highly unusual scent, hard to describe. I'll try: pungent citrus pine. Great vivid photo, Brad. Thanks for the memories. | ||
| Post# 995615 , Reply# 15 5/30/2018 at 06:33 (2,151 days old) by wft2800 (Leatherhead, Surrey) | ||
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"This image from the archives of LIFE magazine first appeared on April 21, 1952" CLICK HERE TO GO TO wft2800's LINK | ||
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Post# 995624 , Reply# 16 5/30/2018 at 08:28 (2,150 days old) by vacbear58 (Sutton In Ashfield, East Midlands, UK) |
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Hoover
Mikeyd
The Monitor is not so much a clone of the Hoover as the Hoover a clone of it. As I understand it, Sir Charles Colston (MD of Hoover UK) was on a visit to North Canton when he saw the Monitor washer (not necessarily at North Canton) and decided it would be a good machine to produce for the UK market and, although not externally similar, I believe the workings are identical. The design of the first Hoover washer looks pre WW2 and I know there were plans to extend the Perivale plant to build these washers. As it was WW2 intervened and it was launched in 1948, manufactured at an all new palnt in South Wales. The design was updated in 1953 and further developed by adding first a power wringer and later a spin dryer to become the Hoovermatic Al | ||
| Post# 995626 , Reply# 17 5/30/2018 at 09:43 (2,150 days old) by mickeyd (Hamburg NY) | ||
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Brit Brains to the rescue!
AL~
"Well, I'll be a son of a bee and a son of a pup"* Who knew? YOU DID. So the humble little Monitor was first and the almighty Oovah was the copy. Unreal! The Monitor never changed, while the Hoover evolved dramatically, morphing ultimately even unto automatics. It was fun and exciting to wake up to this, Al; my brain perked right up without coffee. Thanks. * My Grandmother Margaret used to say this, rather than "swear" as she called it. WFT~ Nice find, and who knows, those machines may have already been in the lab for a year or so, as well. | ||
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