GE F49 Travel Iron

[tomturbomatic]

The box reads: Worldwide Travel Spray, Steam & Dry Iron

It's so old it still has the black cloth cord with white stripes. I picked it up at an estate sale for $4. A travel iron is sort of an anachronism though since nicer hotels furnish an iron in the room now and you probably could not get on an airplane with one. This one has everything but the foreign adapters. The lady who owned it even made a little foil pad for inside the box for the iron to rest on in case it is still warm.

 

[d-jones]

All right Tom, where's the picture? You must have known we'd all want to see it.

 

[supersuds]

Yay, somebody else has one!

I bought this years ago. Used to take it on airplanes with no trouble, though always told the security people what it was up front -- those were the days.

This is with the "230" volt adapter (never used) in place. The red switch is the voltage selector -- the instructions note it is dangerous to use on 230 volts with the setting on 120. The blue slider is the temp control and off switch.

The plastic spray bottle screws onto a nipple on the other side.

 

[supersuds]

Here with the spray bottle in place

Steam comes out three holes near the point of the sole plate; it isn't  the highest capacity steaming, but you can spray, too, obviously.

 

Apparently the aluminum foil rest was standard!

Mine is not old enough to have a cloth cord, though. It's neat that the plug has the GE logo molded on both sides, and both prongs of the plug as stamped "GE" as well.

 

Congrats, Tom!

 

[d-jones]

Thanks for the pictures, John. It's always nice to be able to see what's being discussed.

 

[supersuds]

Maybe Tom will add pics of his, too.

I wonder how long GE made these.

 

[launderess]

There are literally hundreds if not thousands of those little GE irons in thrifts, eBay, homes, etc... Many NOS sitting in their boxes. Guess not as many persons "travelled" as General Electric planned. That or just simply the market was flooded with the things and most saw them as useless so they were shoved into drawers or stuffed into closets and otherwise forgotten.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Many were smaller than the GE, but looked like electrical experiments with terminal pins rising right out of the top of the iron and having handles that were not well shielded from the heat aka knuckle burners.

The only difference between mine and the one pictured is that the green areas on the box mine came in don't appear to have as much yellow in the green, which is understandable for an older model when the shading had not yet moved more toward avocado.

 

[supersuds]

There aren't actually any green areas on the box. It must be a photographic artifact. The drafting table I photographed it on is light green and it may have cause some color shift. The white areas on the box have become orange-yellow over the years, though.

I'd imagine this sort of appliance got light use from most people, but that's to our benefit today!

Last year I had to use an iron supplied by a Marriott Hotel and was none too pleased when it blurped out a bunch of rusty water on a white shirt.

It may not have been actual rust but it was brown and created spots...

It made the idea of having one's own travel iron seem quite appealing.

 

[arbilab]

This was the only iron I ever owned. A roommate left it behind in an apartment in 1968. I used it for about 5 years until the cord broke. Found alternate methods. Never was a real fashionista, and permpress works pritdang well if handled correctly.

Grandma used to iron sheets in her Ironrite but even she succumbed to practicality at some point.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The discolored water probably looked like rust because of the toasted lint that can build up in the steam vents. That was the whole idea behind the "self-cleaning" irons introduced in the late 60s or early 70s. With a full boiler and a high temperature the cleaning lever released a flood of water onto the hot soleplate to flush out with water and steam the toasted lint. I think that the toasted lint buildup came from doing a lot of dry ironing with a steam iron so there was not steam flowing outward to keep lint from building up and scorching in the steam vents. Brown steam or sputterings of brown water were not produced by our irons, but we usually ironed with steam.

 

[circlew]

I have an old travel iron somewhere. I can't remember the brand, but it's pretty old, and the cord is like used on a waffle iron or electric roaster. It also has a handle that fold down.

 

[tolivac]

Another thing when folks travelled for the most part it was for entertainment-so they would bring clothes that wouldn't need pressing.And,often the site they travelled to would have an iron to use.-Say staying at a relatives or freinds house for visiting instead of staying in a hotel.