From Everything One Has Read
Housewives of the period gave a collective "ewwwwwwwwwww" to washing dishes and laundry in the same machine. Even with the bother of switching tubs and so forth the concept just didn't seem to fly. Most households thus either used the machine for one or the other purpose.
My 1950's issues of CR's buying guides gave the washer middling marks overall for laundry, but rated the Thor highly in terms of extraction (IIRC).
Much like another Thor appliance from same era (the Gladiron), Hurley Machine Company was trying to reach space/housing challenged 1940's and 1950's households with a device that would (in theory) do two of the most hated tasks and took up little space. Again no matter how much salespersons and Thor tried housewives just weren't buying....
When you think of how many washing machines back then were doing heavy diaper duty one can really understand the reluctance. Even *knowing* there were two different tubs and whatever just couldn't bring myself to use the same machine for soiled diapers *and* dishes.
