Perforated Tub Blackstone

[Unimatic1140]

A big thank you goes out to Fred (Blackstone) who sent me some great Blackstone washer ephemera. I just posted the first two items to the Ephemera Library if there are some Blackstone fans out there. More to come in a few weeks.

#1 Early 1970's Blackstone Washers and Dryer Brochure
#2 Perforated Tub Blackstone washer service manual.

 

[johnrk]

Blackstone washers

Were Blackstone washers more a regional brand than a national one? Truly, I've never seen one, having lived in parts of Texas all my life. They used to always be in the CR tests, and they apparently were premium-priced.

 

[Unimatic1140]

The only place I've seen Blackstone washers of these style were in Laundromats, the coin-op versions that is. One in New Jersey and one in Fort Lauderdale.

 

[brucelucenta]

We had one in Tulsa, Oklahoma too for a brief time back in the early 70's.

 

[johnrk]

Brochure

I just bought and downloaded this brochure. Though I much prefer good photography, I always admire the artwork of these professionals who do such an amazing job. This artist is very elegant indeed. I wonder whether they just get technical drawings and blueprints of the products and have to work off of that, or prototypes, or what.

Again, though I've never actually been around one of these, they look very nice.

 

[blackstone]

Avocado

Avocado-color models were not a big seller. White and Harvest Gold were more popular.

 

[gyrafoam]

IMO the perf tub machines looked very Westinghouse-ish on the inside. I don't know if Blackstone "borrowed" some of Westinghouse' features or some other deal with them. Just like many other machines in the day, they easily suds-locked.

 

[bajaespuma]

Thank you for those brochures

I believe Blackstone was a New York State brand. They haled from Lucille Ball's hometown, Jamestown, if I'm not wrong, yet I too never even heard of Blackstone until I read my very first Consumer's Reports magazine in 1969. I've since learned from this site that they were a very important brand in the history of laundry machines. I have never seen one except those at a couple of Wash-ins.

 

[agiflow2]

Wasn't their very first automatics in 1941 ?

 

[gyrafoam]

I have a friend just south of where I live with three generations of them. A flat-top, an early sixties solid-tub and a seventies perf-tub. IMO the coolest of them is the early-sixties solid-tub. Sadly, a critical, extinct part stands in the way of it running again.

Always an interesting trip for me,when I was young, was to visit relatives in "up-state", which meant Monticello. Most of those folks had Blackstone, Easy and Maytag. Oh, there were some GE's, Kenmore's for sure, Kelvinators and Speed Queen and Frigidaire. My first on-hands exposure to an old slant-front Westinghouse set from the early fifties were relatives who had yet to bail-out of their old townhouse in the Bronx. While everyone was up on the third floor I would sneak down to the basement and play with the washer. Throwing a CUP of Tide into it proved problematic and it nook numerous rinses to stop the sudz!

I cannot remember ever seeing a Philco, a Norge, a Whirlpool up in NY, although,I'm sure they were around.

 

[blackstone]

Gyrafoam

What critical part is needed?