Nice Range
Not only did it have a deep well, the deep well had an Ekco pressure cooker that also had a non-pressure cover. The gray Bakelite knob that locks the lid says Hi Speed Calrod. The Ekco had a smaller opening than the Presto or Mirro Matic deep well pressure cookers. I don't quite know why range manufacturers would offer a pressure cooker, not a light utensil when filled, for a deep well where it had to be lifted about 9 or 10 inches out of the well after cooking, but pressure cookers were a hot item in the housewares market and I guess they thought it added some usefulness to a feature that maybe was not quite as much of a draw as it had been in the early days of electric cooking when the deep well was sold as an economical way of electric cooking. More and more people were using electric ranges and not going broke paying the electric bill so there was less emphasis on the economy of using the deep well cooker or Econo Cooker as Westinghouse called it or the Thrift Cooker as both Hotpoint and GE called theirs.
If this is an ED1 or ED1F1, it is a 1949 model and could have been made as early as 1948 for introduction in the fall. After WWII, innovations were coming fast to appliances so models with new features were pushed early, often before the official start of a new model year. The lighted pushbuttons were a new feature. Even the oven selectors were buttons with Red for Broil, Yellow for Timed Bake and Green for Bake. For the surface units Hi was Red, Second was Yellow, Third was Purple, Lo was Green and Warm was Blue.
In the instruction manual for the ED1F1, in the section about the thrift cooker, they mention, on page 35, "It's splendid for fixing large quantities when you're having a gang in for midnight supper" and on page 38 the question is asked, "Got a large group coming in for a midnight snack?" What were large crowds of people doing until midnight in the late 40s? I have never heard of this late banqueting. Were they square dancing or bowling, maybe skating?
The deep well pan could be used like the West Bend bun warmer to warm rolls or biscuits using the trivet with no water on Warm or Lo heat.
I found an unused pressure cooker for the GE deep well in a huge flea market in the 90s in northern Maryland. The instruction label is still glued to the lid and the booklet is inside. The gasket and air vent/pressure plug are still flexible and like new.
