Well, it has taken almost 70 years for tumble action washing to emerge as the most efficient way to do laundry although I am not so sure about the gentleness of the current HE tumble action washers that do seem rough on fabrics because of using so little water that fabrics rub against each other instead of plunging into deeper pools of water like in older front loaders. Well plunging over a water fall and hitting rocks in the stream could be rough, too, I guess. Westinghouse used similar imagery of laundry tumbling several miles down a stream back in the days of their tilted tub with the three vanes although I don't know how many housewives were comfortable with the image of setting their laundry loose to be washed down a stream.
POD 1-26-25 Bendix Tumble Action Washer
- Thread starter tomturbomatic
- Start date
Help Support :
Actually much longer than 70 years....
It was known by late 1800's and certainly 1900's tumble action/cylinder/H-axis washing machines produced better wash with less wear on laundry than nearly every other method. This included washing with central beaters, vacuum action and so forth.
Commercial/industrial laundries long used cylinder/h-axis washing machines. First powered by steam (which drove belts that operated machines) then via electric motors.
Hurley Machine company came out with Thor "Cylinder" H-axis washer in early 1920's.
https://archive.org/details/youyourlaundry00fred/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater
Maytag also early on had an h-axis washer as well.
It was known by late 1800's and certainly 1900's tumble action/cylinder/H-axis washing machines produced better wash with less wear on laundry than nearly every other method. This included washing with central beaters, vacuum action and so forth.
Commercial/industrial laundries long used cylinder/h-axis washing machines. First powered by steam (which drove belts that operated machines) then via electric motors.
Hurley Machine company came out with Thor "Cylinder" H-axis washer in early 1920's.
https://archive.org/details/youyourlaundry00fred/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater
Maytag also early on had an h-axis washer as well.
Yes, but American housewives were wed to vertical axis agitator washers and until the 50s, high sudsing washing products did not perform well in tumbler machines so Bendix and Westinghouse were a very small minority in the automatic washer field; so much so that CU and CR stopped even testing and reporting on them until a letter from a reader asked why. I have seen the Maytag cylinder washer, and while it was introduced in their non-automatic line, it was not the direction Maytag chose for their automatics. When Maytag came out with the Neptunes, their ad copy read like they had invented the H axis washing machine.
Well yes, what you've said is not incorrect.
Commercial/industrial laundries had no issues turning out excellent wash using soap right up until and even for time after Tide and other detergents came along.
IMHO what kept h-axis washing machines from advancing in USA were several factors besides high suds soap. Primary among them was Bendix tying up so many patents that anyone else interested had to pay for use or design work around options. Either way it was expensive which added to cost of washing machine.
Commercial/industrial laundries had no issues turning out excellent wash using soap right up until and even for time after Tide and other detergents came along.
IMHO what kept h-axis washing machines from advancing in USA were several factors besides high suds soap. Primary among them was Bendix tying up so many patents that anyone else interested had to pay for use or design work around options. Either way it was expensive which added to cost of washing machine.
