The Very First Norge Automatic Washer

[Unimatic1140]

Hi everyone, so by chance I recently found the owners manual to the very first Norge automatic washer, from around 1949. After seeing the instructions on how to operate the machine I'm pretty confident that either Norge purchased some of the parts from Bendix or had Bendix build the machine for them. I'm not sure why they did this since they released their very own design of top loader starting in '51 and discontinued this front loader.

It's a super cool 18lb front loader, the first large capacity automatic to be built.

I have both the brochure and owners manual to this machine now on Automatic Ephemera. I don't know if any of us in the aw.org family has ever found one of these machines. It sure would be very interesting to find one.

 

[norgeway]

MMMMMMMM

I would hook that monster up tomorrow!!!

 

[akronman]

hmmm

it reminds me of my Hamilton dryer

 

[rockland1]

Look-alike

My thoughts exactly!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Jeff discerned from the service manual I let him read and scan that the tranny was identical to the early Bendix tranny in their first bolt-down machines when they had a very slow spin speed. Since it had to be bolted down, there is still hope of finding one locked to the floor in an old basement somewhere. I hope whoever bought it kept their wringer washer to wring the water out of the laundry. With the large tub, it probably would have washed better than the tiny tubs in the Bendix machines. CU made that comment about the larger tubs in the combos.