THE ELECTRIC HOME

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 732, 3 August 1929, Page 21

THE ELECTRIC HOME

LABOUR SAVING DEVICES WASHING MACHINES HEAD LIST Day by day progress is made with new labour-saving devices in the home, and the adaption of electricity is responsible for the vast majority of these comparatively new innovations. The electric range and vacuum cleaner are among the forerunners of labour-saving helps, but it will surprise many to learn that in America and Canada, the homes of laboursaving conveniences, the electricallydriven washing-machine stands almost on the top of the tree. The washing-machine industry in America occupies the fourth position in the electrical field. Electric globes come first, home wiring contracts second, manufacture of electric fixtures third, and the washing-machine industry fourth. It exceeds such industries as electric locomotives, motors, radio, vacuum cleaners, etc. In 1925 the total retail volume was 105,000,000 dollars, represented by 700,000 units. In the United States of America there is now a total of 4,000,000 electric washers in use, as compared with the 14,000,000 wired homes, showing that there are two washing-machines in use to every seven wired homes in existence. EVOLUTION OF WASHER It is interesting to watch the evolution of the modern electric washer. Some ten years ago, when the possibilities of washing-machines as lab-our-saving devices became apparent, tho old paddle-wheel type was in existence. This ran with the noise of a chaff-cutter, and had all the moving driving parts exposed, which made it a constant source of danger to children and also was responsible for quite a few accidents through the operators’ having their frocks caught in the driving machinery. These machines were improved from time to time by having the driving parts enclosed, and the electricallydriven wringer placed on them, until 192 5, when there were numerous makes of quite good machines available, practically fool-proof and free from danger to operators and children. MODERN ADVANTAGES However, manufacturers became more and more aware of the fact that the electrically-driven wringer had its disadvantages. It broke buttons, there was always the possibility of the operators having their fingers jariibed in the rollers through negligent handling of the clothes, and there were deep, squeezed-in wrinkles in the clothes. On the most modern machines the wringer is superseded by a hydroextractor that is a spinner basket in which the clothes are placed. This throws the water out of the basket as it revolves and the water is removed from the clothes in an infinitely more thorough manner than by the old wringer method. The clothes come out of the spinner basket after two to three minutes’ spinning, damp-dry—with some materials, such as silks, dry enough to iron. Deep, squeezed-in wrinkles are avoided, broken buttons are unknown, and there is positively no danger of broken finger nails or jambed fingers. Fabrics such as towels, blankets and other materials of a similar nature are removed from the hydro-extractor with the napp standing straight up like new, and it is also possible to wash feather pillows, eider-down quilts and other things similar to these with the utmost ease.