POD 4/24/2017

[brucelucenta]

A 50's Hamilton set. Hamilton made their own dryer, in fact they made them for other manufactures in the late 40's and early 50's too and re badged them. To my knowledge they never manufactured their own washing machine though. Norge made washers for them till sometime in the early 60's and then Blackstone did until they quit making laundry equipment. By then the dryers they manufactured had changed into solid drum dryers, like most other manufacturers made. They were still good dryers up until the end. One of the trademarks of a Hamilton dryer was the little glass window on the door. Later on, in the 60's that became a big glass window door.

 

[fridgenut]

Bruce,

Very interesting. Thanks for the information. When you say that Hamilton switched to a solid tub dryer, I had no idea there was any other type. What other kinds were there?

 

[lesto]

I thought this looked like a Norge-made washer when I saw the timeline control panel. And the illustration of the agitator looks like a 50's Norge as well. I've seen old ads for Zenith washers from the 50's. Were they Norge machines as well

 

[ea56]

My parents had a Hamilton washer just like this one for about two years before it broke down and was replaced with a GE FF. I remember playing with the timeline control, when no one was watching of course!
Eddie

 

[brucelucenta]

The way Hamilton dryers were in the beginning were similar to some of the other dryers which had an inner tub and outer tub. The inner one was perforated and the outer was solid to allow the air to blow thru and out the exhaust. Sometime in the mid 60's Hamilton finally started making solid tub with no outer tub dryers. I would imagine that the dual tub machines were quite costly to make. I have actually seen two different style Hamilton dryers that otherwise looked almost identical. The earlier design was wider too, the solid tub machine was 27", like many other dryers.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Raymond, early dryers based on the Hamilton design had a perforated inner basket and a solid outer tub which contained the the heating element. The heat radiated through the perforated basket and warmed the fabrics and the air. If it was a gas dryer, the burner was off to the side at the top and the heat was drawn into the area where the clothes were tumbling. Norge and Whirlpool were among the first to have a solid drum with the air blown or drawn through it but it was a much higher airflow design than the early dryers of the perforated inner basket design. By 1957, the change in dryer design could be seen as manufacturers embraced the solid drum, lower heat and higher airflow style. They were usually much lighter and less expensive to build and the higher airflow made them faster.

 

[fridgenut]

Ah, that makes sense.

Thanks for the information. Now I know how the first dryers worked.

 

[brucelucenta]

I am curious, was Norge the only one who made the blower blow thru instead of sucking the air thru as Whirlpool did?

 

[gansky1]

Zenith branded laundry products were made by Apex until their demise in '58, after that they very well could have been sourced from Norge, but I don't know that we've seen one around here (of either make) before. There is a POD for the Apex made Zenith laundry that comes up from time to time.

The wider Hamilton dryers were made, dubbed the "Heritage" style, along with the newer 27" "Holiday" line when the newer design debuted in the mid-60's.

The Hamilton name didn't survive long after being acquired by WCI but they interestingly kept the familiar rectangle door window.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Hamilton, with the first dryer, put that window in the door so that people could see what was happening to their laundry in this new appliance. There were many falsehoods and "alternative facts" told about clothes dryers like that they would burn the clothing. Perhaps that is why the first dryers from Hamilton and GE had a one hour maximum drying time on their timers, because given that, in the beginning, the laundry was going into the dryer from either a wringer washer or a Bendix Automatic Home Laundry which did not extract as well as a wringer, one hour was not likely to produce over-dried laundry. The windows were meant to reassure people that their clothes were tumbling safely and were not, like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, going around in a fiery furnace.

 

[ea56]

The first dryer that my Mom owned was a 1955 Norge Timeline, but I can't remember exactly how long it could be set for, but I don't think it wouldn't have been over 80-90 mins. It had a lever at the opening that could be pulled down to stop the tumbling of the drum so you could dry sweaters and shoes flat. I remember that Mom was very happy with the Norge.

We moved in 1962 to a home in El Cerrito, Calif. that was custom built in 1956. In the laundry room there was a matched 1956 Speed Queen Washer and Dryer. Even though the 55' Norge was still working fine, never any repairs, and the 58' GE FF was also fine, Mom was crazy about a matched set of Speed Queen's, so the old set was left behind with the sale. She soon changed her mind. The dryer got so hot its a wonder that the clothes didn't burst into flames! I can remember taking stuff with zippers right out of the dryer and getting burned by the zippers. And I don't mean just an ouch burn, but good sized red marks. She didn't like the washer because it didn't have the features she'd become used to on the GE. So she replaced them both with new Whirlpools(MOL washer and BOL dryer) that she used for many years. The washer until 69' and dryer until 1982.
Eddie
[this post was last edited: 4/24/2017-21:20]

 

[gansky1]

Bruce -

Early GE dryer and Westinghouse designs were forced-air stream (rather than vacuum) dryers as well.

I saw a very early GE dryer at a sale a few weeks ago, fascinating machine. Dead as a doornail, but I just went to look anyway.

The third pic is a vintage dryer I saw at a sale this week. It was a surprise to see it, but let it slip away as well.