the fantasy and others...
For heavens sake Diomede! Imagine a child or even an adult would put his fingers to the rotating drum....and gets the fingers between drum and outer container....it will badly injure the whole underarm and could probably bruise the hand or tear off fingers!!!
Concerning the techniques of H-Ax-TLs: Yes you are right, I remember the three lids very well but was to bored to mention them, as I thought, no-body would know about that outside Germany, because I believed, it was a special German thing.....how one can err!!
Yes, the electricity was fit to the MIELE machines just before WW I., I guess, but couldn't claim much popularity before time after the war and especially after WW II. because of a lack of electricity in many basement laundry-rooms and even more because of the price. There was an other type of motor, even more popular than the electric one: the hydro- or water-motor, working by the pressure from the tap. It never became available in Britain because of their low-pressure water-system (tank-system). This type of motor was only working with agitators as it moves back and forth like the cylinder of a steam-engine. There were also hydro-presses (one huge cylinder with a double bottom or rubber-bag to press out the water) and hydro-spinners (turbine-system) available but they never became as popular as wringers did.
Combo-washers weren't only available from MIELE but also from SIEMENS (Protos) and other brands as they had one advantage tub-washers hadn't: they could have a fire installed underneath to bring the suds to the boil while washing them simultaneously. Ok, there were also hydro-motors with agitators available to be sit-up on the rim of a copper-boiler instead of its lid, to make a heated washer out of an ordinary boiler! Nonetheless tub-washers have always been more popular because they were CHEAPER and MOVABLE! Remember that 80% of the Germans live(d) in RENTED FLATS! Fast installations, as for washers with a furnace, have to be allowed by the owner of the house, the land-lord, who seldom would do that...
When electricity prices dropped after WW II. washers with electric heaters were available and the law was changed, that forbid to use washing machines in flats. This was forced by the selling of so called flat-fine machines like the HOOVER singel-tub or twin-tubs with pulsator, an american invention, or agitator! These machines with 220V/1,5-2,0KW heater-elements were safe for the kitchen or bathroom and needn't a 380V/3-phase circuit installation as for big wringer-washers with 6kw heater-elements, made for the use in laundry-rooms in the basement.
During the Wirtschaftswunder-time after WW II. (thanks to the American support) Germany became wealthy again and the people could afford even automatic washers. Step by step the laundry-rooms disappeared during the 1960s-1970s and combos with 4,5-5,0 kg loads became popular - first FLs, then more and more space-saving H-Ax-TLs, and later the front-loaders again until today. What people do not like with TLs here today: they cannot stack them with the dryer!
Ralf from Germany
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