Very old ABC on CL Bingahamton NY

[firedome]

Don't know diddley about these, but it's galvanized steel and looks v old! 1920s?

http://binghamton.craigslist.org/atq/3563169359.html

My wife's the "Doc" in this small town so it probably belongs to one of her elderly patients!

http://binghamton.craigslist.org/atq/3563169359.html

 

[firedome]

"ABC Electric Laundress Oscillator"

is the actual logo on this ancient machine...its a cool looking thing.

 

[tomturbomatic]

A lady I worked with who was born in 1920 remembered their first electric washer when she was a child. It was labeled 1910 Cataract and it was a rocker also with the ribbed-bottom tub that rocked back and forth.

Cataract was the ancient Greek term for a waterfall or white water rapids. Maps of the Nile label the 6 cataracts which are more rapids than waterfalls. Because looking through a water fall presented a whitish haze blocking the vision and the white water of a rapid looks like the cataract on the eye, the term came to be used for the growths on the cornea that do the same to vision. The down rushing sudsy water at each tip of the ribbed tub was the inspiration for the washer's name. Who would ever think that ancient Greek would be used to name a modern appliance?

The cataracts on the Nile blocked navigation so finding the source of the Nile was an overland project which is why it was so long delayed.

 

[firedome]

I rather gather

that most aw.o folks aren't really interested in these old dinosaurs? Looks like a lot of work to use, that's for sure.

 

[tomturbomatic]

You are right.

It's more a Lee Maxwell treasure and he probably already has one. Most of us collect what we remember or what we saw in old magazines or people's homes and just had to have.