POD 8/15/2017

[brucelucenta]

Hamilton automatic dryers were to my knowledge the first automatic dryers. This company began making dryers in the 40's and a few washing machine manufacturers even contracted them to make re badged machines for them in the beginning. One of their trademarks was the small rectangular window in their dryer door. It was pretty distictive. It was a very heavy built machine with an inner and outer drum. The inner drum was completely perforated and lint would drop into the outer drum and most would blow down to the lint trap at the bottom. Later in the 60's they changed their dryer to a more conventional solid one drum design and had a much bigger window that covered most of the dryer door. Hamilton never did manufacture their own automatic washer though. In the 50's Norge re badged machines for them and in the 60's Blackstone re badged machines for them. I have had a gas dryer similar to the one pictured and it did dry in record time with very high temps indeed. It had a continuous burning pilot. I would imagine the electric units would really suck up the energy in use.

 

[toploader55]

When I was a child I remember around 7-8 years old, our neighbor had a Hamilton Dryer with the Sun-E-Day Lamp. Also had a 1960 Kenmore Washer.

She had 5 children, She, her Husband and the Uncle lived in a quite large house.

That dryer ran probably 5-7 hours per day. 3 boys and 2 girls generated laundry to keep those machines running 7 days a week.

I remeber they did a remodle on the house and installed a stack Westy set in the new upstairs bathroom. By then all but 1 child had grown up and moved away, but the Hamilton was still in the basement, working as a throw rug dryer.

 

[tomturbomatic]

That's like my baby in the basement! Wonderful dryer. The first Hamiltons were built before WWII. When they invented the dryer, they decided that since it was such a new appliance, they needed a window in the door so that people would be able to see what was going on inside and that their laundry was safe. I get a really dramatic effect if I turn out the light in the area with the dryer when a load of whites or light colors are drying. The combination of the drum light, the purple "ultra violent" light right over the window and the tumbling motion makes the fabrics look like a sort of psychedelic light show and whites are a bluish-purple, almost electric, white. These older models were not made to washing machine dimensions so they are a few inches higher. The motor did not have an internal overload protector so these have a separate screw in fuse to protect the motor. I think it is 4 amps or so.

 

[turquoisedude]

Wasn't the first Frigidaire dryer actually a re-badged Hamilton?  That window in the door kinda gave it away... 

 

I'd have to guess that Hamilton was never seriously marketed here in Canada; I cannot ever recall seeing any laundry equipment of that brand here.  

 

[frigidaireguy]

FRIGIDAIRE MADE BY HAMILTON

When I was growing up we had a 1949 Frigidaire dryer which was built by Hamilton. Frigidaire didn't make it's own dryers until 1952 when the first filtrator machine was made. Our dryer only had a 60 minute timer and no temperature control - The vent was in the front at the bottom of the dryer.
Bob

 

[tomturbomatic]

The Frigidaire by Hamilton had the window reversed so instead of tumbling fabrics falling through the air, you saw the fabrics riding on the bottom of the drum on the way up. It was a disconcerting view of a dryer's operation compared to the views offered by other dryer windows.

 

[toploader55]

Just remember...

Sun-E Day light... Ultraviolet... = NO POLIO !!!