Argyrol is an antiseptic mostly used to treat gonorrhea, and ophthalmic infections. Composed of mainly protein and silver, it was the drug of choice from it's invention in the early 20th century until about the 1940's. Argyrol,along with silver nitrate was routinely placed in newborns eyes to prevent blindness caused by a gonorrhea infection aquired during birth.
All medical uses of silver have long since ceased upon the invention of modern antibiotics and also out of health concerns.
"Electric Sheets":
Am almost certain Bendix meant electric blankets.
Regarding the detail of which the manual goes into, one has to remember for many women of the period the Bendix washer was probably their first "automatic" way of doing laundry. Some housewives may have gone from using a wringer or other semi-automatic, others still were using wash tubs, mangles, scrub boards and so forth to do their washing by hand. As accounts of various units being found shoved to the side of a basement or laundry room in an old home, seemingly unused, many housewives preferred their "old" methods to using a washing machine.
Who wrote all that stuff? Likely legions of women with "home economics" degrees from colleges and universities. Work was where you found it for women in the 1940's and so forth, even those with higher education.
