Friday, September 18, 2015

SCRUB-A-DUB-DUB...

Washing machines.
One day last August I loaded my clothes, added the soap, then closed the lid; I turned the dial to the “Regular Wash” cycle, aimed the little arrow at “start” and pushed.
          The washer started the spin cycle.
          I stopped the machine, turned the dial, lined everything up again and pushed again – this time, it started the spin cycle, but added water to the whole thing.
          The third time around, I got agitation, but no water.
There was no fourth time; I went to the laundromat in town.


Over a hundred years ago, the Charles Williams Stores in New York offered a washing machine called the Sunny Monday Double Rubber Washer!
“The clothes to be washed are put into the tub between the lower and upper rubbers…practically the same movement as the one used in washing clothes on the washboard…”
          They’re not talking about rubber as we know it—they’re talking about two wooden rollers inside the machine that “rub” the clothes back and forth whenever you move that bizarre handle on top.
It’s only $2.45, for goodness’ sake!






Sears, Roebuck offered The Dolly Wonder – a “big family” size tub of one-inch cedar. Operated by electric motor, it “will do the family washing week after week and month after month easily and economically.” It was equipped with a power wringer with semi-soft rolls; a wide, reversible drain board. Only $51 if you pay in cash; the credit terms were $5 down and $5 per month…but the interest pushed the cost of the machine up to $56.25.










But, omygoodness, look at the 1931 Wardway Electric Gyrator Washer from Montgomery Ward!
          “The new, improved Gyrator Agitator swirls and forces the hot soapy water through the clothes…women everywhere tell us that no rubbing is necessary!”
          It has an all-copper tub that holds 6-8 cotton sheets; it has a strong ¼ horsepower splash-proof electric motor; its gears push the clothes back and forth AND up and down!
          Mrs. L.E. Davis of Tippecanoe City, O, writes “Under your easy payment plan, one pays so easily that it is not noticed.
          Best of all, the Wardway comes with a 10-year guarantee (with ordinary family use).


Wish I’d had a 10-year guarantee on my 2011 machine…

22 comments:

  1. Sounds like even washing machines don't last like they used to. Your description of your washer problems sounds like the computer problems I have had the last few days. I really need a new computer but was hopping my old XP computer would last until I could find a Windows 10 model with all the features I want.

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    1. Good luck with that computer thing! And I don't think they make ANYTHING the way they used to...our economy depends on things breaking/failing!

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  2. Early in my marriage we persuaded my mother-in-law to buy a washing machine but the next time we visited she was still boiling everything up in the copper before putting them in the washing machine to make sure the clothes were properly clean.

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    1. Lots of old houses here in Maine still have "set" tubs in their basements -- brick foundations with copper tubs set within them -- there's a firepit beneath for heating the water. Old habits die very hard indeed!

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    2. A rose by any other name....... What we call coppers you call set tubs !

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    3. Ah! THAT makes sense! Love this international slant to Sepia Saturday!

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  3. My son had a problem with his front loading washing machine, in that the door wouldn't open. A repair man couldn't come for a week or so, abd my son had to keep running the machine so that the clothes inside wouldn't go mouldy in the meantime! When I first got married we had a machine with a wringer like those pictures, and we used it.

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    1. Jo, when I was little, my job at my grandmother's summer house was to turn the crank for the wringer...loved the sound the water made dropping back into the machine...don't see those very often any more!

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  4. Scrub-A-Dub-Dub three men in a tub, you know somebody was going to add this! Three times and you're out.... off to the laundromat she goes! Great story. I would love to see what you've described in your comment to boundforoz, it sounds like an incredible buying point if I ever bought a house in Maine!

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    1. Hard to describe: think of a rectangular block made of brick, about waist high...iron doors underneath open to fire pit, copper kettles set in recessed openings on top -- hot wash/rinse water for laundry.

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  5. The Sunny Monday Double Rubber Washer makes a good tongue twister.

    In those days, whether you paid $5 or $50, I'm sure you had to notice the payments unless you could afford a maid who did the laundry. Wonder what Mrs. Davis got for that little testimony.

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    1. Yeah, eight times fast is pretty hard...and Mrs. Davis, poor thing, scrubbing away in Tippecanoe, Ohio, probably got free shipping for her washer! It's the least they could do...

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  6. I was going to ask if anyone remembered the ads for a washing machine where they emphasized the agitator surgilator action...we laughed about that in the family for many years....an agitator surgilator...is surgilator a real word I wonder?

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    1. I'm snorting up here in Maine -- "agitator surgilator?" Seriously? Sounds like it should be mailed in a plain brown wrapper...

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  7. We just replaced a 12 year old front load washer with a top loader that has no center agitator but a computer control more powerful than my first PC. It has a marvel of washing choices but if that computer ever fails, it will be impossible for a DIY repair.

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    1. Mine has far too many choices, Mike -- and I daresay yours does, too...whatever happened to wash/rinse/spin? It's a perfect example of technology running rampant!

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  8. I can still remember my mother boiling clothes in a ‘copper’, fishing them out with tongs and then putting them through a mangle to wring all the water out. We are still pretty lucky these days even when the machine goes wrong.

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    1. I remember using an electric mangle -- running sheets through it; I think we folded into fourths, then ran them through the mangle before finishing the folding. Boy, were those sheets beautiful!

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  9. Wow! You found some really ancient washers! Love the lady's line: "Under your easy payment plan, one pays so easily that it is not noticed."
    In the days before credit cards/

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    1. I'd sure like to have ALL my payments be so easy -- and not notice the money dribbling out of the checking account!

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  10. The "Sunny Monday Double Rubber Washer" has me thinking of Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers. Try saying Sunny Monday Double Rubber Washer five times real fast and see what happens. I find by the time I get to "washer" I'm going downhill fast.

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    1. I can't even do it if I'm READING the words! Never was really good at tongue twisters -- but I remember Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers and Tinsmiths Should Snip Tin on Thursdays...

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