This was the first . . .
. . . dishwasher I ever saw. Our neighbor had one -- it was an electric sink type thing.
The upper rack had to be lifted out and set on the counter above the dishwasher. Then you loaded the bottom rack -- the silver basket was in the center just above the fan that sprayed the water.
Then you put the upper rack back in place and loaded the glass, coffee cups, bowls, etc.
There was no timer dial. Just a button. Push the button, and the water started running in. The whole cylce took about an hour including drying.
The soap dispenser was in the door, but there was no cover -- just 2 holes into which you poured the dishwasher soap.
The cleaning was fair. Of course, the hotter the water, the better it cleaned.
Some other people moved into that house. They had never had a dishwasher. The wife had heard about using only dishwasher soap -- but surely just one or 2 small drops of liquid Joy wouldn't hurt anything.
I've never seen so much suds -- coming out the vent, around the door . . . suds were everywhere.
I was about 8 or 9 when all this was happening -- early 1950's. Brings back a lot of memories.
(This was the same neighbor who had the Electrolux vacuum that, when the bag got full, it would open its rear end and shoot the full bag out into the room -- a subtle hint that it needed changing. She also had a Bendix bolt-down that emptied into a sump with a pump that pumped the water out into the back yard. It was fun running up the stairs when the sump pump started to see if I could beat the water to the back yard. There was also a GE dryer with one timer dial -- one heat setting.)
Jerry Gay