cornutt
Well-known member
I've always been fascinated by complex machinery of any sort. And back in the day, other than an automobile, the washing machine was the most complex device most people owned. I recall, when I was about 4, watching the washing machine and wondering how it knew to do all of the different operations it did -- filling, agitating, draining, spinning -- and when it should do them. I asked my dad and he explained to me about the timer. He drew me a few diagrams of what the inside of the timer looked like and how it did its thing. I didn't really understand it all at the time, but it was still interesting. Over the next few years, whenever the washer needed repair, I'd watch my dad when he worked on it, and he'd point out the various components and what they did -- the motor, the transmission, the pump, the fill valves, and so on. One specific bit I recall was trying to understand how the water flowed for the filter (the machine was a Kenmore with the manual-clean screen filter). I always wondered why, during neutral drain, the filter kept flowing water until the water level in the tub got down to a certain point, then it stopped. I never did figure that out until I started browsing here!
In the era of electro-mechanical automation, the washing machine timer really was a work of art. Today, when everything has a microprocessor in it, we tend to forget how much effort went into making something like an automatic washing machine function properly. It sounds corny to us now, but these machines really were miracles of the technology of their day.
In the era of electro-mechanical automation, the washing machine timer really was a work of art. Today, when everything has a microprocessor in it, we tend to forget how much effort went into making something like an automatic washing machine function properly. It sounds corny to us now, but these machines really were miracles of the technology of their day.