How to use the site

On this site you will find pictures and information about some of the electrical and mecanichal relics that the Frank Sharp Private museum has accumulated over the years .
There are lots of vintage electrical and electronic items that have not survived well or even completely disappeared and forgotten.

Or are not being collected nowadays in proportion to their significance or prevalence in their heyday, this is bad and the main part of the death land. The heavy, ugly sarcophagus; models with few endearing qualities, devices that have some over-riding disadvantage to ownership such as heavy weight,toxicity or inflated value when dismantled, tend to be under-represented by all but the most comprehensive collections and museums. They get relegated to the bottom of the wants list, derided as 'more trouble than they are worth', or just forgotten entirely. As a result, I started to notice gaps in the current representation of the history of electronic and electrical technology to the interested member of the public.


Following this idea around a bit, convinced me that a collection of the peculiar alone could not hope to survive on its own merits, but a museum that gave equal display space to the popular and the unpopular, would bring things to the attention of the average person that he has previously passed by or been shielded from. It's a matter of culture. From this, the Washer Rama Web Museum concept developed and all my other things too. It's an open platform for all electrical Electronic TV technology to have its few, but NOT last, moments of fame in a working, hand-on environment. We'll never own Colossus or Faraday's first transformer, but I can show things that you can't see at the Science Museum, and let you play with things that the Smithsonian can't allow people to touch, because my remit is different.

There was a society once that was the polar opposite of our disposable, junk society. A whole nation was built on the idea of placing quality before quantity in all things. The goal was not “more and newer,” but “better and higher" .This attitude was reflected not only in the manufacturing of material goods, but also in the realms of art and architecture, as well as in the social fabric of everyday life. The goal was for each new cohort of children to stand on a higher level than the preceding cohort: they were to be healthier, stronger, more intelligent, and more vibrant in every way.

The society that prioritized human, social and material quality is a Winner. Truly, it is the high point of all Western civilization. Consequently, its defeat meant the defeat of civilization itself.
Today, the West is headed for the abyss. For the ultimate fate of our disposable society is for that society itself to be disposed of. And this will happen sooner, rather than later.
OLD, but ORIGINAL, Well made, Funny, Not remotely controlled............. and not Made in CHINA.

How to use the site:

- If you landed here via any Search Engine, you will get what you searched for and you can search more using the search this blog feature provided by Google. You can visit more posts scrolling the right blog archive of all posts of the month/year,
or you can click on the main photo-page to start from the main page. If doing so it starts from the most recent post to the older post doing simple clicking on the Older Post button on the bottom of each page after reading , post after post.

You can even visit all posts, time to time, reaching the bottom end of each page then click on the Older Post button.


- If you arrived here at the main page via bookmark you can visit all the site scrolling the right blog archive of all posts of the month/year pointing were you want , or more simple You can even visit all blog posts, from newer to older, clicking at the end of each bottom page on the Older Post button.
So you can see all the blog/site content surfing all pages in it.


- The search this blog feature provided by Google is a real search engine. If you're pointing particular things it will search IT for you; or you can place a brand name in the search query at your choice and visit all results page by page. It's useful since the content of the site is very large.

Note that if you don't find what you searched for, try it after a period of time; the site is a never ending job !

Technology has made us leap in terms of saving time and efforts. From the conventional pounding of clothes on the rock to the modern cubical white boxes which have several buttons for washing your clothes delicately or permanent press, we have come far from primitive hiccups of civilization.

Unlike other collector's items like watches, radios or cars, antique washing machine models do not allure the collectors, who try to avoid them as much as they can. One of the main reasons is that they are difficult to maintain.

1900 to 1935 saw the advent of old washing machines that were powered by gasoline or electric motors. Gasoline was hazardous and had environmental issues.

Before 1900, antique washing machines were actually run by people. But, invention of internal combustion engine and electric motor changed the scenario and electric powered washing machines became popular.
Since the old washing machines did not have on-off switch, if the clothes or hand of the user was caught in it, the electric chord had to be pulled out or the user could lose her anatomy. Basically, the safety mechanism was primeval.

History of antique washing machine can be traced back to 1800's when rotary washing machines were invented. Then in 1908, Hurley in Chicago introduced Thor - a vintage washing machine that comprised of a galvanized tub and an electric motor. The tub was wooden and turned 8 revolutions before reversing. It was designed by Fisher.

In 1893, Maytag Corporation started manufacturing washing machines and in 1907 they introduced a wooden tub in it.
Upton Machine Company or Whirlpool started in 1911 in Michigan. It manufactured electric motor driven wringer washers.

In 1920 rocker type machines became extremely popular. Judd rocker was amongst them but this washing machine did not have wringer safety release. There was no earth and the terminals were not insulated.
Later, Horton Company in Indiana started manufacturing electric machines, which featured a powered wringer. Additionally, it had a safety release.

J. T. Winans got patent for washing machine that had pulley, which was driven by a water motor. The water motor was belted to the pulley and this was connected to a tap. The water powered motors did not become popular and eventually the company shifted its focus to electrical powered washers.

One of the most interesting antique washing machines belonging to early 1900s was the Laun-Dry-Ette which was manufactured by Home Specialty Company, Ohio. There was no wringer present in it but it comprised of two cups (having an agitator), which produced a twisting motion for better cleaning. This old model is a darling of many vintage washing machine collectors.
According to estimation, there were more than 1000 companies in the early 1900s which were manufacturing washing machines. Most of them were small scale companies, but they all had resources to manufacture electric washers.

In 1691, first British patent was issued for the category of Washing and Wringing Machines.

In 1782, British patent for a rotating drum washer was issued to Henry Sidgier.
Nathanial Briggs was the first American to get the patent in this category.
Louis Goldenberg of New Jersey invented electric washer in the early 1900s.
Since he was employed with Ford, all inventions created by him during that time belonged to Ford.

In 1928, US sales increased to more than 900,000 units, but the sales dipped by 1932 to about 600,000 units only, due to Great Depression.

In 1930s spin dryers were introduced and the entire mechanism was hemmed in a cabinet. Manufacturers started paying lot of attention to safety issues. Spin dryers replaced the electric powered wringers.
Almost 60% of the households in US owned electric washing machines in 1940s.

In 1937, Bendix was issued a patent for automatic washing machine. The machine had to be anchored or fixed to the ground so that it didn't shift while functioning. Bendix Deluxe was introduced in 1947 and it was a front loading machine. It was priced at $250.
GE was the first company that introduced top load washing machines.

1940s and 1950s saw proliferation of washing machines that were mainly top loading.
Some companies manufactured laundry machines which were semi-automatic. The user was supposed to intervene with the wash cycle in order to wring and rinse the clothes.

Every OLD Washing Machine saved let revive knowledge, noise, thoughts, wash engineering, moments of the past life which will never return again.........
These were the days when some washing machines were more like machine tools and bristled with levers and gears. There was a sense of occasion when they were powered up and then helping to guide soaking sheets through those powerful rollers with torrents of soapy steaming water (roughly) pouring back into the tub.

Many contemporary appliances would not have this level of staying power, many would ware out or require major services within just five years and of course, there is that perennial bug bear of planned obsolescence where components our deliberately designed to fail or manufactured with limited edition specificities.

.......The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of todays funny gadgets low price has faded from memory.....
Don't forget the past, the end of the world is upon us! Pretty soon it will all turn to dust!

Have big FUN ! !


©2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 Frank Sharp - You do not have permission to copy photos and words from this blog, and any content may be never used it for auctions or commercial purposes, however feel free to post anything you see here with a courtesy link back, btw a link to the original post here , is mandatory.
All sets and apparates appearing here are property of
Engineer Frank Sharp. NOTHING HERE IS FOR SALE !

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

PHILCO (FORD) WA952 YEAR 1966.



























The machine PHILCO (FORD)  WA952  describes a front loading washing machine, with a rotary drum, comprising a chassis that supports a cylindrical washing tub inside which there is mounted a rotary inox steel drum with a horizontal axis. The washing tub intended to contain a liquid soap, and a drum with perforated walls for containing the clothes to be washed, and which is rotationally mounted inside the washing tub and driven by an electric motor to rotate in both directions with respect to an axis that is substantially horizontal or slightly tilted with respect to a horizontal direction. Generally, this type of machine can rotate the drum at a fast speed in order to drain the clothes contained inside by spinning them.








 Furthermore  it has a CLOTHES DEFLECTING DOOR In an effort to reduce entanglement of clothes with this flexible sleeve it is usual to construct the door, and particularly its window portion, in inwardly projecting form, substantially filling the inside of the flexible sleeve except for some small clearance to allow relative movement of the sleeve and door.

The tub is attached to the chassis by springs or dampers and linking rods provided with shock absorbres od idraulic type.
The chassis structure frame is made up of resistant elements including metallic plate elements shaped by cutting and folding, assembled and joined together by screw or deformation attachment devices, or by welding. The machine is an example of a chassis holding parts structure instead of a normal steel sheet cube chassis of the self holding type like many other machines.




The PHILCO (FORD)  WA952  washing machine  includes a cabinet , a control panel assembly  disposed at an upper portion of a front side of the cabinet , and a knob assembly  rotatably mounted on the control panel assembly to set a washing cycle.The time or device is a HOLZER MTA (Invented by Walter Holzer) and is developed in such a way that it is possible to switch the program contacts exactly in a preselected sequence, according to a preselected program. It is also possible to have the selection of further program sections take place easily, eg. by pressing buttons or rotate selectors. The primary feature of this  invention is to be seen in providing a pulse device which assigns various periods of times to various program sec
tions of a program "control system ". It is a further object of this invention, to provide shortvand long switching times in a program cycle. A further object of this invention is to change the program without altering the control itself, by changing the pulse duration or pulse times. It is also made possible to change whole sections of the control program by a corresponding pre-selection. The system therefore brings to a virtually infinite number of combination of programming sequences even by user choice time by time.

To see the Internal and Technical View CLICK HERE or on older post button at the end of this post.


Philco, the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company (formerly known as the Spencer Company and later the Helios Electric Company), was a pioneer in early battery, radio, and television production as well as former employer of Philo Farnsworth, inventor of cathode ray tube television. It is currently a brand of Philips.
Philco's rise to the top of radio makers was an amazing feat. While other makers like Atwater-Kent, Zenith Electronics, RCA, and many now-forgotten others (Freshman Masterpiece, FADA Radio, AH Grebe, etc.) sold many battery-powered radios in the early 1920s, Philco made only batteries, "socket power" units, and battery chargers. With the invention of the rectifier tube, which allowed radios to be operated from the wall socket, Philco knew their business was doomed, and decided in 1926 to get into the booming radio business. By 1930 they would sell more radios than any other maker and hold that first place position for over 20 years.
Philco built many iconic radios and TV sets, including the classic cathedral-shaped wooden radio of the 1930s (aka the "Baby Grand"), and the very futuristic (in a 1950s sort of way) Predicta series of television receivers.
Philco started experimenting with television in the early 30s and financed for a while the experiments of Philo T. Farnsworth, considered by many as the “father of television.”An experimental TV station was licensed to Philco in 1931, one of the first all-electronic television ;
Granting of such experimental broadcasts by the FCC was common practice at that time, as television took its first tentative steps in New York City, Schenectady, and Philadelphia. While the rest of the country remained oblivious to the new medium, viewers in those cities bought several thousand sets to watch the limited schedule of programs transmitted by pioneering broadcasters of the East Coast who jumped at the opportunity to go from experimental to commercial television broadcasting.
By 1937, Philco was using an experimental 441-line television system which utilized a 12” television receiver—a direct, but bulky competitor to David Sarnoff’s RCA 12” set.
Along with the stations that would become WNBC-TV and WCBS-TV in New York City and WRGB-TV in Schenectady, WPTZ-TV, Philco Corporation's station in Philadelphia, gravitated to sports to fill air time.
On October 5, 1940, when there were about 700 sets scattered throughout the Philadelphia area, Philco broadcast the University of Pennsylvania's Quakers 51-0 victory over the University of Maryland at Franklin Field.

Today, the Philco brand name is carried by several different companies and holding groups throughout the world.
Philco International
In 1974, 13 years after purchasing the Philco Corporation, Ford begins divesting part of the Philco business by selling the Consumer Electronics Division to GTE Sylvania. Three years later, Philco International is purchased by White Consolidated Industries (WCI). In 1986, Philco and WCI are purchased by AB Electrolux of Sweden. And, in 1988, Philco finally moves out of Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, to join other WCI affiliates.
Itautec-Philco S.A.
In 1989, Philco-Brasil is bought by the group Itaúsa, part of Bank Itaú. Most of its plants are centered around three plants in Manaus for the manufacture of TV sets, video cassettes, fax machines, printers, and PC boards.
Philco-Argentina
It is owned by Jorge Blanco Villegas and has a plant in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego. It manufactures mostly Semi Knock Down (SKD) type components, i.e., fabrication of pre-assembled PC boards and components. The German company VDO imported Philco-Argentina auto radios into Brazil for a while¾but with little success.
Philco-Italia S.P.A.
During the 70s, Philco-Italia became part of Bosch-Siemens and was subsequently acquired in 1987 by the Gruppo Merloni with Felice Colombo as president. It currently manufactures refrigerators and air conditioners in northern Italy having distributors in all 5 continents, Philco G.B. Ltd. in England, Philco Trading in Egypt, Bendix Unit B1 in Australia, among others.














4 comments:

Anonymous said...

A lot congratulations for this Philco. I am Italian and I own a washing machine Philco Ford, fully functional, almost identical to this one. Your Philco, is still working? There are still spare parts for this washing machine?

FRANK said...

The machine is fully functional , have had to replace the drain tube from tub to filter unit, an easy fix. Not all parts are today's easy to find, particularly specific items like timer, programmer...... mechanical parts are easier to fix...... These machines don't know wear....they will run forever with a little, but necessary, care for them.

Keep your washing machine healty.......she will thank you forever.

Unknown said...

Thanks Franck, for letting me respond. Indeed, these Philco washing machines, are eternal. I am currently trying to regenerate a Philco model W65A, made in Italy, until 1985. In practical, this is currently a washing machine, a loss of water in the back of the washing. I managed to recover two timer (timer Holzer), with the help of a friend preziodo, very passionate about washing machines, and in particular, specializes in repairing these timers Holzer. I would love to see a saw, while it is in functioning this your Philco Ford.

Chicco. (from Italy).

Unknown said...

It 'still working this fantastic washing machine? You think could put it in production yet? As I told you a while ago, I own two Philco washing machines, identical to this, in your photos, and both still work perfectly.