Washer Rama Museum ™: PHILCO FORD MOD. WS942

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 !