Thread Number: 80017  /  Tag: Vintage Automatic Washers
Launderall Model LSI by Jacobs
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Post# 1039449   7/25/2019 at 21:03 (1,707 days old) by Dickerson87 (Atlanta)        

New to the site and looking for information on the Launderall washing machine.

While cleaning out my grandfather's basement we found 2 of these machines. Not in great shape but wondering if they had any value.
Also would any collectors be interested in these machines before sending to auction.

Please see the pictures below.

Thanks


  Photos...       <              >      Photo 1 of 7         View Full Size



Post# 1039451 , Reply# 1   7/25/2019 at 21:45 (1,707 days old) by turquoisedude (.)        

turquoisedude's profile picture
The Launderall is an unusual model - it's the only H-axis automatic washer made in the US (they were more popular in Europe). The transmission is what literally drives the machine - there are timing cams in it, along with a mechanism that will alternate the direction in which the tub will rotate. Among the quirks of these machines is the fact that you cannot select a specific washing time or skip a part of the cycle- when you turn the machine on, it's on... It runs through about 10 minutes of washing, then it spins, rinses, spins, rinses again, then does a longer final spin. And the machine has to be bolted down to the floor; even with no clothes in it, it will do a mean rhumba across the laundry room floor!

They were made in the late 40s into the early 50s; if I recall the story correctly, F.L. Jacobs sold the Launderall design to Horton in the early 50s and production of this style of machine stopped shortly thereafter.

Someone here may well be interested in one or both of the machines. They are not one of the best ever made but they are kinda fun to mess with...

Here's a peek at mine when I was testing it...






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Post# 1039454 , Reply# 2   7/25/2019 at 23:15 (1,707 days old) by RP2813 (Sannazay)        

rp2813's profile picture

 

 

380 RPM?  That's pretty terrible.

 

Is that a chilled water Coca-Cola cooler?


Post# 1039460 , Reply# 3   7/26/2019 at 01:56 (1,707 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)        

launderess's profile picture
Wringers could manage at best extraction equal to about 250rpms, so 380 was marginally better.

Plus the washing machine was fully automatic which in grand scheme of things likely was worth more to housewives than powerful extraction.



Post# 1039463 , Reply# 4   7/26/2019 at 05:42 (1,707 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        

So the double revving noises at 1:26, do they accompany ever acceleration to spin? I think it is a neat noise and would love to have something in my house that makes those noises out in the open, maybe an alarm clock or a doorbell.

Post# 1039481 , Reply# 5   7/26/2019 at 09:47 (1,707 days old) by LowEfficiency (Iowa)        

lowefficiency's profile picture
>> The Launderall is an unusual model - it's the only H-axis automatic washer made in the US

I'm assuming you meant that as top-loading H-axis? (Otherwise there are/were plenty of others...)

For USA-made top-loading H-axis, there is also the Staber...
www.staber.com...
usermanual.wiki/Document/DealerS...


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Post# 1039516 , Reply# 6   7/26/2019 at 14:26 (1,707 days old) by turquoisedude (.)        

turquoisedude's profile picture
I stand corrected - top-load H-Axis. In Europe, there were several and they were made for much longer. I always seem to think Philips made one in the Netherlands, but I could (obviously usually am...) wrong.

Post# 1039523 , Reply# 7   7/26/2019 at 16:23 (1,707 days old) by foraloysius (Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands)        

foraloysius's profile picture
I’m afraid you’re wrong indeed. Philips toploaders were made in the UK and in France.

Post# 1039736 , Reply# 8   7/28/2019 at 18:30 (1,705 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)        
Actually Hurley Machine Company

launderess's profile picture
Produced their Thor "Cylinder" washer back in early part of last century, and was the only TL H-axis washer on market until withdrawn.

Of course issue with this washer was it used a wringer for extraction. Commercial/industrial laundries then had power extractors (belt or otherwise driven).

Don't know how that Phillips toplader h-axis ended up at the Edison center in New Jersey, but am green with envy.

edisontechcenter.org/WashingMachi...


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Post# 1039751 , Reply# 9   7/28/2019 at 19:39 (1,704 days old) by jeb (Mansfield Ohiio)        
Thor

I actual have this model. Tub reverses about ever 4 revolutions. One down fall is the lid is on a track and slides down the from when loading or unloading, water will drip on the floor.

Post# 1039782 , Reply# 10   7/29/2019 at 01:04 (1,704 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)        
Have always wanted a Thor "cylinder" washer.

launderess's profile picture
That makes two club members who have one of these machines. You and MrDryClean in upstate NY.

One popped up last year in Boston area, but just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger. It sat on CL for ages before listing finally vanished. Don't know if anyone bought the unit or it went to scrappers.

Cord was cut, so that was a big issue for Moi. Would have needed to rewire from motor connections on up. That or pay someone to do the work.

Without a pump using the Thor would have meant a bucket brigade to deal with draining.

In the end with the AEG toplader arriving couldn't justify need for the Thor. Maytag wringer is more than enough on the semi-automatic score.



Post# 1039788 , Reply# 11   7/29/2019 at 05:25 (1,704 days old) by chestermikeuk (Rainhill *Home of the RailwayTrials* Merseyside,UK)        
Launderall Model LSI by Jacobs

chestermikeuk's profile picture
fascinating machine when you think of the same era Hoover had introduced their first single tub wringer washer here without a switch pump or transmission, that wash action is really energetic. Thanks for the video Paul.

Many people here had the first of slow spin front loaders which washed rinsed and slow spun with ease and but kept the spin dryer (usually Creda, spinning at 2,800) so the whole laundry process was manageable and very efficient over a wringer and / or dolly tub !!

Wow a Philips AWB103 looks like in the museum along with the Ariston / Riber Euro washer dryer !!


Post# 1039792 , Reply# 12   7/29/2019 at 06:14 (1,704 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        

Maytag offered a cylinder washer with a wringer in the early part of last century also. I remember seeing the framed ad in the Maytag dealer where John used to work. The tank in which the cylinder revolved had a cover like I have seen on the portable laundry tubs that Sears sold and made a nice folding area when in place. It was strange that they seemed to have forgotten this chapter in their past because when they came out with the Neptune, Maytag acted like it was the first tumble action washer ever invented.


Post# 1039844 , Reply# 13   7/29/2019 at 10:58 (1,704 days old) by thomasortega (El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles de Porciúncula)        

Sorry for hijacking this thread but.... Just a couple of weeks until the Niagara reaches the market.

In this case, if we consider those super old models, it will be the 4th HATL washer on the market.


Post# 1039848 , Reply# 14   7/29/2019 at 12:19 (1,704 days old) by stricklybojack (South Hams Devon UK)        

stricklybojack's profile picture
.
Maybe Robert, Unimatic 1140, should hotrod one of these.


Post# 1039905 , Reply# 15   7/29/2019 at 20:01 (1,703 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)        

launderess's profile picture
"One down fall is the lid is on a track and slides down the from when loading or unloading, water will drip on the floor. "

Like this?






Post# 1039911 , Reply# 16   7/29/2019 at 21:21 (1,703 days old) by thomasortega (El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles de Porciúncula)        

OMFG!

It reminds me when I tested the Niagara for overdosing resistance (10 scoops of tide and a Downy dosing dap of Dawn in a full load of towels)

The suds did NOT reach the control panel, but it was a mess with the washer vomiting suds everywhere.


Post# 1040637 , Reply# 17   8/4/2019 at 09:40 (1,698 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        
Washington's Steam Laundries

By John Kelly
May 10, 2014
My daughter and I were at the National Capital Trolley Museum, where we saw a photograph of a Washington streetcar. The streetcar was standing in front of an industrial-looking building that had a smokestack with the name “Tolman” emblazoned on it. Given our region’s dearth of medium and heavy industry, was the photo actually shot elsewhere? And who was Tolman and what did they manufacture?
— Craig Messner, Silver Spring
Tolman manufactured cleanliness. Clean clothes, to be exact, along with table linens, towels and any other fabrics that needed to be laundered.
The Tolman Steam Laundry was one of dozens of such establishments that competed for customers in Washington from the end of the 19th century into the middle of the 20th.
Ours has always been a predominantly white-collar city, don’t forget, and someone needed to keep those collars white.Tolman was founded in 1879 and started out at the northeast corner of Sixth and C streets NW. In 1931, it moved to a $500,000 facility at Wisconsin Avenue and Jenifer Street NW, roughly where the Friendship Heights Metro station’s south entrance is today.
Steam laundries were industrial operations, different from what were known as hand laundries. They were called steam laundries not because they used steam to clean clothes, but because they originally used steam engines to power the machinery, thus the need for smokestacks.
A 1940 Washington Post article explained the process. Drivers working on commission would pick up bundles of soiled clothes at customers’ homes.
Once delivered to the laundry, the Post reporter wrote, “the bundles are weighed, tagged with a set of brass identification pins, and sent to the sorting room in 40 bundle lots. Skilled sorters break open each bundle, list each piece with a typewriter-like machine, mark them with indelible ink visible only in infra-red light, and separate them into three groups — white clothes, colored, and ‘fugitives’ whose colors run.”
The items then were loaded into massive washing machines that moved through several suds and rinse cycles. Then it was on to large, sieve-like cylinders for drying. Sheets were dried differently from socks, socks differently from shirts, shirts differently from towels. Each category of item was pressed differently, too.
Finally, The Post wrote, “By the ink markings, which stand out brightly in infra-red light, the original bundle is reassembled, packaged and sent, with the bill, to the delivery trucks.”
In 1931 — if you’d taken advantage of Tolman’s special end-of-week budget rate — all of this would have set you back 24 cents a pound for wearing apparel and 10 cents a pound for flat work. Sign Answer Man up!Not so fast, says Arwen Mohun, a University of Delaware history professor and author of “Steam Laundries: Gender, Technology, and Work in the United States and Britain, 1880-1940.” The system sometimes broke down.
“A lot of people were very ambivalent about laundries,” she told Answer Man. “They had a tendency to lose things and also ruin your clothes. They used a lot of harsh chemicals and the machines sometimes tore apart items that were fragile.”
Still, reading about Washington’s steam laundries provokes a certain envy. Which one to choose? The Arcade Laundry and Sunshine Dry Cleaning & Dyeing Co. at Lamont Street and Georgia Avenue NW? The Palace Laundry, owned until 1947 by George Preston Marshall? (He sold the family business to concentrate on his football team, the Washington Redskins.) Or perhaps the Old Colony Laundry on Blair Road NW in Takoma, which boasted a wonderful slogan: “We wash everything but the baby.”
There were Chinese laundries, too, such as A. Wong at Second Street and Pennsylvania Avenue SE.
The washing of clothes has undergone an interesting, boomerang-flight evolution, from drudge work done inside the house, to an efficient service made possible by the industrial revolution, to something that arrived back at home.
“The decline [of steam laundries] starts in the 1930s with the first viable electric washing machines,” said historian Arwen. “People’s reasoning is you get the labor for free, which you don’t really, but nobody thought women’s work was valuable.”
Advances in fabric made a difference, too. “No one in their right mind would iron a sheet now,” she said. “But that was sort of necessary in the age before things were permanent press. And a lot of the clothing we wear is knit, which doesn’t lend itself to commercial processes.” In 1973, Tolman was sold to Manhattan Laundry. Manhattan merged with Aristo Laundry in 1976. A year later, Aristo threw in the towel, so to speak. Answer Man likes to think it was a clean towel.
--------------------------------------------------------------

I remember the Manhattan building on New York Ave. in my early years here.


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