Big Window Hamilton Dryer in St. Louis

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Unimatic1140

Unimatic1140

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Here is the email from owner:

e-mail: [email protected]
Below is the Hamilton gas dryer I'd love to find a good home for. It is model #HS928, serial #80109D286. It is currently in use, and still has an operable "Sun-E-Day" lamp, which was Hamilton's proprietary 4-Watt u.v. mercury-vapor germicidal lamp meant to give a "fresh air" smell to the clothes. (lamp uses the 40-Watt drum lamp as its ballast). It has the old-style Emerson motor, which still looks like a real motor-not the skeleton-frame tack-welded-together junk they use now. The old motors can be rebuilt using new bronze bushings.

Unfortunately, the dryer will be gone by Tuesday unless I hear from someone that they definitely want the unit.

5-27-2006-19-05-37--Unimatic1140.jpg
 
Hamilton? What's a hamilton? I think I have only seen on

NEATO!

How many BTUs? (Heat input)
When were Hamiltons most popular?
In what year did they appear, disappear?
What are the settings?

Fascinating!

Enquiring minds want to know!
 
Steve, I do believe Hamilton may have been the first automatic clothes dryer, pre-WWII. Remember the 194X Unimatic and matching dryer Steve in Florida got related to the "big parts haul"? That was a Hamilton dryer. Frigidaire used it until they came out with the Filtrator.

Hamiltons were in their heyday in the 1950s and possibly early 1960s. they were built better than tanks. The dryer above may be late 1960s or early 1970s. That aws about the last time I saw a new one, with the same windowed-door as above.
 
Does anyone have any idea what the matching washer looked like inside as well as outside?

We had an old Hamilton Dryer c. "Fred and Ethel", looked pretty much like one I've seen (below) on the site. No sun-e-day lamp, not even a separate start switch and it was four years until I discovered it had a lint trap (on the bottom front of the unit, in the kick-space, not 1 inch from the floor!) I'm surprised those units didn't cause a lot of fires. The drum was comletely perforated with a series of waffle-iron sized nichrome coils directly over the clothes. Did the job though; and how.

5-28-2006-04-07-20--bajaespuma.jpg
 
Launderall

Bajaespuma, is the washer to the right of the Hamilton Dryer a Launderall? That is the very same washer my neighbors had when I was a kid! I must have watched a zillion cycles through the top glass window! Loved it when it did the spin act! If I recall correct, it was the bolt down type, no tub suspension.
 
Temporary home

Are any St. Louis people interested?

I don't think I want this homeless dryer, but it may stay in my basement/garage until it finds a home.

I don't have a truck to pick it up with. If anybody in town has a truck and is willing to help from that angle, let me know. My phone number is 314/638-6268. I'd prefer to avoid renting a truck.

Steve
 
Thanks TrainGuy and Bob, looking forward to getting the machine. Thank heavens for Chris-----he is going to make the removal and store it untill I can get up there and fetch it.

Steve thanks for your gracious offer.

O.K. Peter----here's another day trip!
 
I'm glad someone's getting this handsome dryer, though I don't really understand why the owner wants to get rid of it.
 
I Hate To Rain On A Holiday Parade...

But Franklin was making Hamilton dryers by this time. This dryer does not have the patented Hamilton Carrier Current drying system; it just blows heated air from the back of the drum to the lint filter in the front. The D-shaped drum opening shows that the Franklin made machine borrowed a bit from GE's dryer design. I have played with 2 of these. This is not your grandmother's Hamilton.
 
Hamilton Holiday Dryer

From the Hamilton Doctrine!

Model decoding:

H = "Holiday" Series dryer
S = Automatic Ignition
2 = model series number
9 = variation for features
8 = model year, in this case 1968

Hamilton also made a "Heritage" series of dryers at the same time - the more familiar, larger cabinet, bottom lint screen and small, rectangular windowed door.

By 1967, Hamilton washers were no longer being sourced from Norge (since 1953) and were coming from Franklin, billed "The New Reliables" (remember the Kelvinator and Gibson pics not too long ago on the forum - same thing) and by the very early 70's, were entirely owned and made by WCI - dryers too.
 
Well, this may not be my grandmother's Hamilton, but it is gas so I can use it, it has a window in the door so I can watch it in operation, and I just plain like the looks of it.

I really don't care who made it-----I just like it----what a concept!
 
ok ok

ok ok steve ill pick it up and it can spend a few weeks in my garage and chat with my girls till you get up here.. who knows what the machines will chat about when they are alone?,, hum maybe they will chat about the proper way to put lipstick on a pig
 
Sorry for my misinformed posting. I confused this dryer with another and honestly never knew that Hamilton made these things before disappearing into the billowing suds of laundry history. I knew that they sold them, but did not think that they designed and made them. It's just too radical to comprehend. Tom
 
Oh Steve,
This is super!
Your gas bill is going to go up so much with me playing with this one!
What a beauty!
I just can't wait to use this one!
Congrats!
Brent
 

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