Petipoint irons?

[washernoob]

I saw a $3 petipoint art deco iron at the thrift store today. It was chrome with a black cloth cord. With horizontal "vents" on the side. It looked excellent, but dont know if its even rare.

It had a bakelite switch under the handle.
Also had some other very similar irons but without vents for $3 as well.

Anyone care to shed some light? Should I go back and snatch it up? It had a tag on it that said new, but not sure if it was from the store or something.

 

[washernoob]

In fact it looked quite like this. Except the switch was a more burgundy color (same style though)

 

[launderess]

Early "Art-Deco" Streamline Design

Not long after railroads began the trend with their locomotives, any and everything took up the "modern design" steamline craze. The idea was that articles should move through air with least resistance.

How this relates to ironing, you notice the iron has a distinct smooth shape, and even tapers sort of like a duck's tail at the back. All in aid of (so the theory goes) making ironing eaiser as their would be less resistence. Am sure in theory there may have been some saving of effort, but much would also depend upon how smooth the soleplate surface was an what was being ironed as well.

The fins while adding a nice design touch, probably added little to making ironing "easier".

Streamline design for irons continued until about the 1950's or so when newer and better designed steam irons began to appear on shelves. Until then most irons, like the one shown above were "dry irons", meant for ironing damp items dry. Many of the steam irons that did exist then usually had some sort of tank or other vessel that cliped onto the back of the iron. This held water and could be removed when not required.

As ways for generating steam within the iron took over, the shape morphed into what we see today. This is because the water tank, instead of being attached to the back of the iron as mentioned above, now was built inside.