05.28.23 P.O.D.

[pulltostart]

The text of the ad states "And Hamilton - where automatic washdays were first made possible..."

 

I am assuming that they are referring to their dryers???

 

lawrence

 

[ea56]

This Hamilton washer is just like the one that we had in 1957. It replaced our Bendix Economat. I used to like to play with the Timeline control. Our dryer was a 1955 Norge with a Timeline control too.

Eddie

 

[tomturbomatic]

Lawrence, you are correct because Hamilton made the first dryer. The story was that Ross Moore grew up on the northern prairies and saw his mother's struggles to hang out wet wash in the winter. He invented the dryer to save her from the winter weather. Norge made Hamilton Washers for a good number of years.

 

[maytag85]

I think Hamilton even offered gas models not too long after they started to make dryers. The reason why I believe Hamilton and many others offered gas models (with the exception of GE, Westinghouse, Frigidaire) was to allow people to have a dryer without having to upgrade their electrical service since all you would have needed was a gas hookup which could be tapped into if you had gas boiler or water heater in the basement and a 2 prong plug that would plug into a nearby outlet.

 

[appnut]

Sean, you are correct. The ocmpanies you cite, incluing Hotpoint, were closely linked to electrical generation. They all eventually had to begin offering gas versions, but I don't think they did until the 1960s, but someone here will be able to be more precise.

 

[maytag85]

Reply #4

I think GE (along with Hotpoint) started to offer gas models around 1965 or 1966. They probably had to offer gas models to compete with Sears/Kenmore and Whirlpool since Whirlpool/Kenmore offered gas models from the get go in 1948 and Whirlpool by that point was the largest appliance manufacturer in the US. GE probably got complaints from customers who were looking to buy a matched GE set but were a bit discouraged when they found out they only offered electric dryers and not gas, you could easily convert a electric dryer from 240 volts down to 120 volts but running at half of the voltage would take a LONG time to dry. On the other hand, if a customer walked into Sears in the early 60’s and wanted a gas dryer, you could get the exact model of dryer you wanted.

 

[launderess]

J. Ross More rigged up a gasoline powered washing machine and invented what would become modern tumble clothes dryer. His original dryer was heated with oil however, not gasoline or electricity.

After few setbacks Mr. Moore got Hamilton involved and the rest as they say is history.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/94373495/j-ross-moore

https://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?42577

https://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?65833

 

[tomturbomatic]

According to the July, 1957 issue of Electrical Merchandising, in the article "He Made the Dryer," the oil-heated dryer that Ross Moore first invented was a lean-to against their farm house near Devil's Lake, ND. in which he installed two oil heaters. He patented his Carrier Current April 23, 1936.

"The first dryer was tried out in a home at 901 South Fourteenth St., in Minneapolis. The first customer for the dryer was a mailman in Minneapolis. The dryer was put in on trial and Ross Moore went over the following evening for the verdict. The woman came in and sat down and said, 'You don't know what you have done for us women.' Ross, nervous, nearly burst into tears."

 

[launderess]

With all the recent noise about being "green" and "saving the environment" by hanging washing up to dry, people forget just what a life enhancing (and likely saving) device clothes dryers were back then.

With just wringing by hand, using a mangle or even power wringer one is still left with wash that is heavy and often sopping wet. Those heavy basket loads of wash had to be hauled out to lines (outside) or hung indoors to dry 52 weeks per year regardless of weather.

Late as 1990's women like poor Dolores Claiborne knew the drill.

 

[frigidaireguy]

BENDIX GAS DRYER

My mother bought a Bendix gas dryer in 1947 - After my sister was born - She had a Bendix Deluxe bolt down washer. Drying clothes washed in a bolt down Bendix must have been a feat.

Bob

 

[launderess]

IIRC many of these early clothes dryers had at heat settings somewhere between "hot" and "incinerate".

Bendix offered a "Super Fast" 33,000 BTU/hr. gas dryer or one could have an 9k watt electric dryer.

In comparison modern gas dryers rate between 20,000 and 22,000 BTU per hour. Electric dryers OTOH range between 1800 to 5000 watts.

 

[maytag85]

Most gas dryers from the late 40’s and very early 50’s (mainly from Whirlpool and Maytag in the mid to late 50’s) only had a 18,000 to 20,000 btu heat output. The Maytag gas dryer with the perforated drum (before the HOH dryers) only had a 18,000 btu heat output and dried fairly quickly since it was a low air output machine, even the electric versions were fairly quick from what I’ve heard but don’t have any experience with those earlier Maytag dryers, only experience I have is with the HOH electric and gas and SOH dryers.

Out of all the dryers I’ve owned, the Maytag DG306 (soon to be DG407) is the gentlest dryer I’ve ever used, clothes and towels were always dried evenly and perfectly, even more so after I replaced the cycling thermostat back in 2020. Wasn’t the fastest dryer in the world, but certainly was gentle especially with my shirts that have graphics/decals on them since none of my new shirts had any signs of cracking after being dried in that dryer after a few months.

 

[bajaespuma]

That Hamilton Woman

Yes, a quick plug for one of my heroes, the late great Margaret Hamilton.

 

That said, we moved into a farm house once (heaven) that had a 1953 Frigidaire Unimatic Custom Imperial and one of the first Hamilton electric dryers. I was too young and too callow to appreciate what fate had plopped in my lap. The dryer had a perforated drum and what looked like a rectangular web of nichrome coils above the drum that broiled the clothes. Yes, they were really, really hot

 

I was a Peanuts fan as a boy and it wasn't until that dryer that I got one of Charles Schulz's strips that concerned Linus' security blanket withdrawals as he waited for his freshly laundered crutch: