Meet the HORTONS!

[combo52]

Why Is There A Window In The Lid ?

Hi Ralph, after watching the fun torrents of water splashing around durning the spin acceleration how could it not have a window ?

 

Having the window probably lead to hundreds of laundry enthusiasts today and future members of AW as well as hydraulic engineers, LOL

 

John L.

 

[combo52]

Why Is There A Window In The Lid ?

Hi Ralph, after watching the fun torrents of water splashing around durning the spin acceleration how could it not have a window ?

 

Having the window probably lead to hundreds of laundry enthusiasts today and future members of AW as well as hydraulic engineers, LOL

 

John L.

 

[foraloysius]

An important reason for having a window in the lid is that it gives you an opportunity to keep an eye on the amount of suds in the machine. Otherwise you would have to open the lid all the time.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Am I correct in the assumption this uses a timed fill only for all fills?
Hi Bob, yes it sure does, 2 minutes each fill.

Does it mater which direction it is in when it goes into spin?
Hi Jeffrey, yes because the pump seems to only pump out water when the drum is turning front to back with the pump valve solenoid energized.

Am I the only one wondering why there's a window in the lid?
Hi Ralph, here are my guesses about that:
#1 Like Louis said and most important to check the suds level
#2 Woman were distrusting of automatic washers vs their wringers, seeing it in action might have put their mind at ease that their clothes are being washed properly.
#3 It wouldn't be wise to open the lid fast during the start of spin as everything would get drenched, I suspect even the worse than the ABC/Kelvinator.
#4 The round window lid is so super cute and cartoonish lol!

What do we know about how long these were built ? any idea what the cost would have been and how widely they were distributed ?
My guess John is 1949 thru 1952, maybe 1953 but it seems Horton was gone after that. The tag on the machine the newer machines was marked $299 (which calculates to $2,932.66 in 2020 dollars)!

How much water does is in the tub during wash?
Here is both water level and cycle chart Les. This is from the Launderall service manual, but they both are the same in the Horton, except the Horton only has a 12 minute wash vs 15 minutes in the Launderall and the Horton does a 30 second spray flush during the first drain (which you can hear in the video). I have no documentation what so ever from the Horton except for what came with the machines I just got.

 

[gizmo]

more tech info please??

Hi Robert.

I loved that video.

the sound it makes when changing direction to me sounds like a big centrifugal start switch in the motor.

In that sense it is like the motor in the Hoover slant front Keymatics. they have a large induction motor that can reverse almost instantly - it stops and restarts with, IIRC, the start winding reversed. The Keymatic doesn't reverse tumble, but the motor reverses to change from wash to spin, and it must do that without any pause in between, otherwise clothes would drop into a ball and spin would be unbalanced. I remember talking to a Hoover repairer many years ago, he was a fan of the Keymatic and used one in his workshop to wash rags. (when it was already ancient.) He said it was an important design feature of the Keymatic that its motor could go from full speed one way to full speed the other with only a fraction of a second pause. The Horton may have the same type of motor.?

I suspect the 12 min reversing wash would be better than a 15 min non-reversing tumble in a Launderall?

the change from wash to spin - is that a solenoid operated change of gears or release of a clutch in the transmission?

You have got me fascinated with this machine.

Chris.

 

[akronman]

hmmm

Totally COOL AS HELL.
More videos and pics please. Robert, congratulations and thanks for sharing

 

[Unimatic1140]

Hey Chris, sure...

the sound it makes when changing direction to me sounds like a big centrifugal start switch in the motor.
I thought the same thing when I heard it, although that click seems to be coming from the big reverse relay box, although it may be the motor because they are relatively close to each other it's kind hard to tell for sure.

He said it was an important design feature of the Keymatic that its motor could go from full speed one way to full speed the other with only a fraction of a second pause. The Horton may have the same type of motor.?
I kind of doubt this is some kind of special reversing motors, since reversing motors in appliances was a brand new phenomenon in the late 40's. It seems that reversing relay has just enough of a pause for the motor to stop so it can quickly reverse.

the change from wash to spin - is that a solenoid operated change of gears or release of a clutch in the transmission?
Yes its a spin solenoid that depresses inwards clutch plates that mesh and cause spin (see picture 6 for that clutch assembly).

I suspect the 12 min reversing wash would be better than a 15 min non-reversing tumble in a Launderall?
The Launderall was a reversing wash too. The difference is it did it all with cams and gearing in the transmission vs electrically in the Horton. The Launderall is more complicated than the simplified Horton, the Launderall was a true Rube Goldberg machine mechanically. The Launderall reversed every 15 seconds and the Horton every 30 seconds. See pictures 1-4 for the Launderall mechanics and 5-6 are the Horton's mechanics...

 

[gizmo]

So if I read this right, the Bendix trans and the Horton equivalent have a single motor, the shaft of which drives two gears, each gear drives its own output gear. The clutch switches the output shaft of the transmission between the slow gear and the fast gear?

That's a nice system.

I didn't know Bendixes did a reverse tumble, i has assumed they didn't.

That Launderall system... Sheesh. Talk about complicated...

Thanks Robert, much appreciated.

 

 

[Unimatic1140]

Actually Chris the Bendix machines never came with a reversing motor, they only tumble and spin one way, the Horton version of that transmission was modified slightly to allow tumbling in both directions via a reversing motor.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

What do the controls

do? What's the layout?

 

[foraloysius]

Jerome,

The machine in the video has two dials on top of front of the machine, like the Maytag AMP if you are familiar with that machine. On the left is a timer. The positions on the timer are FILL 12 | | 9 | | 6 | | 3 | | DRAIN SPIN RINSE DRAIN SPIN RINSE DRAIN SPIN OFF

On the right is a dial for the temperatures. Two positions HOT and WARM.

 

[kevin313]

Congratulations, Robert!!

Rare finds indeed! And they are beautiful!

Watching the video, the machine seemed relatively quiet. I was expecting it to be louder.

So glad you have added these to your collection! Living washer history!

 

[Unimatic1140]

Thanks guys for all the nice comments!

So now that I have the 1952 model all bolted down and washed several loads very successfully I'm going to work on the earlier 1949/1950 model. I really think of the two machines the earlier machine is much more fun looking. The earlier model has its timer hidden underneath and there is only a start switch to start the cycle. The start switch is simply a rocker wheel (picture #2), you turn the start switch forward, the machine starts and the rocker knob snaps right back to it's original location. Once you start the machine it has to run through the entire cycle by itself (just like the original Launderall), you can't adjust the cycle at all or even really know where it is in the cycle unless you pay close attention. In 1947 Consumer Bulletin wrote "The duration of the wash, rinse and spin cycles of Launderall cannot be changed as it can be in the Bendix. This would appear to be an advantage as it will prevent the inexperienced housewife from shortening the time of the washing cycles and thereby reducing the machine's washing ability".

Uh huh well I'm not inexperienced nor a housewife lol. And I found if I don't pay attention I'm not sure if it's in the first rinse or the second rinse to add softener. So I created a simple app for my android phone (see picture #3) that if I start the app and the washer at the same time it will always let me know where the earlier Horton is in the cycle. Just like the washer the dial increments on the app every 30 seconds, the red number in the center top is counting down the number of seconds until the next increment click, and the bottom # has the number of minutes left in the 36 minute cycle. Interesting to note that when I start the washer and the app exactly at the same time by the end of the cycle the washer is increment clicking about 3/4" of a second faster than the app. I do know that the 21st century app is timing correctly and the 1949 mechanical timer escapement is not a perfect science in the vintage machine so the increment timing speeds up ever so slightly over the course of the entire cycle.

 

[lebron]

Amazing machines that you found. They look very cool and rare. I didn't even know of Horton washers. It is interesting to know that old timers speed up throughout the cycle.

 

[golittlesport]

very clever, Robert

 

[jetcone]

SO SO COOL

What a find, I can believe in reverse tumble top loaders again! I hated my Launderall and it hated me and caught on fire LOL!
Do you see any patent numbers on the machines, I want to do some digging/

 

 

[Unimatic1140]

Do you see any patent numbers on the machines, I want to do some digging

There are not any patent numbers on the machine however I have found some of them. But what really piqued my interest was the original Launderall patent. It assigned to:

"Clare S. Jacobs and Merton F. Wilcox, Detroit, Mich., assignors, by mesne assignments, to Horton Manufacturing Company, Fort Wayne, Ind, a corporation of Indiana"

So Jacobs and Horton were connected somehow from the very beginning!

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patentimages.storage.googleapis.com

 

[appnut]

Oh wow Robert!!!!

 

[jetcone]

So it would appear

Jacob's Launderall was always made by Horton Mfg. They just used the inventors name in the beginning , amazing that they got rid of the rigged gearing and simplified it electrically ! Fascinated by that reversing relay !

 

[rinso]

When I was a rotten little kid, I had a friend named Darrel. His mom had one of these and yes, I was totally fascinated with it. My poor mom still had a Maytag wringer washer.