Maytag built his first washer in 1907 to supplement his line of agricultural equipment. Both companies operated large factories in Chicago.Īnother leading Appliance Manufacturer at the time was the Maytag Washing Machine Co., which was founded by Frederick Maytag in 1893 (the company was acquired by Whirlpool in 2006). of the Electric Household Utilities Corp., and Western Electric Co., which specialized in telephones. The Uptons had to compete with well-established companies, such as the Thor Appliance Co., a trademark used by the Hurley Machine Div. More than 100 manufacturers produced a wide variety of washing machines a century ago. “Before 1920, agitators were typically suspended from the lid of the tub with the gear systems, which drove them, being mounted on top of the lid,” says Lee Maxwell, a retired electrical engineer in Eaton, CO, who has amassed the world’s largest collection of an-tique washing machines and written a book on the subject. patent was issued to Alva Fisher just one year earlier for a “drive mechanism for washing machines.” It featured a “pulley driven from a small electric motor” mounted on a cross brace under the machine. The rotary washing machine had actually been invented more than 60 years before.īut, electric washing machines were still relatively new in 1911.
Impressed with the fledgling company’s business ethics, the customer doubled its order to 200 washing machines.Ī century ago, washing machines were primitive devices that consisted of a large wooden barrel attached to cast-iron legs and an odd assortment of gears, cranks, levers, springs, pulleys and belts.
Upon learning of the issue, Lou Upton replaced the defective parts with a new cut-steel gear. However, a problem arose when a cast-iron gear in the transmission failed in every single machine. The first major order for 100 washing machines came almost immediately.
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