Ralph, to answer your question, this one still has the lint filter at the bottom. The door on the top is for access to the pilot light and burner. If it were old enough, there would be a big red movable bar that you could move in an arc from front to back that regulated the burner input. The older dryers had a single operating thermostat, but offered variable heat input that, combined with the high air flow, could keep temperatures very low. Later on they had selections for the heat like Low and Superfast on more basic models then fabric settings like Wash 'n Wear, Shag Rugs, Delicates, etc. The number of settings maxed out at around 7, I think, depending on how much money you paid, but it amounted to two heat input levels and air fluff. The fan was 21 inches in diameter. It was a big disc with the cuts around the perimeter for the blades. The drum was driven from a roller underneath it and the famous Norge Stop'n Dry feature that allowed you to dry without tumbling lifted the drum just enough so that the roller could not drive it. There was a spring-loaded tubular rack that could be placed resting on two baffles at the bottom of the drum for drying stuffed toys, tennis shoes, etc or placed between two baffles at the top of the drum so that items like foundation garments could be draped over it and dried, usually on AIR, without the tumbling that would get all of those clips and hooks caught up where they should not be.
The air entered the drum at the back, just below each vane. The air blew the clothes against the door gasket to the extent that over time, they rubbed the rubber away on the drum side.
When the dryer was redesigned in the mid 60s, the lint filter was moved off the floor.
