![]() ![]() She said in Woman Inventormagazine in 1890 that she sold it for one reason: “You know I am black and if it was known that a Negro woman patented the invention, white ladies would not buy the wringer. Instead, she sold her design to an agent for $18. She never benefited, though, because she didn’t patent it. Eglinof Washington, DC, invented what some sites described as a successful clothes wringer in the 1880s. Intrigued, I went searching for more information on this metal contraption built to do “woman’s work” and came across a fascinating bit of history buried deep in Google:Ī black woman named Ellen F. As I rounded it for a more thorough look, I saw telltale signs that it had worked hard: Thick grease and dirt had darkened the electric motor on the left side. We both knew it was a source of labor for women who had to carefully guide wet clothes through it without losing their fingers or any other body part. The man obviously came from a home where mothers, grandmothers and aunts did the laundry and not the family maid (as evidenced in the movie “The Help,”where they cooked, cleaned, washed, ironed and raised the babies).įrom where I stood, the Westinghouse machine appeared to be clean on the outside and inside, and its metal agitator was still intact in the tub. It stood out among the disparate collection of powered wheelchairs and small tables at the auction house. I had spotted the machine about five minutes before he approached it, and I was also taken by its look. ![]() “I’ll be darned.” The wringer on the electric-powered washing machine was both a blessing and a danger. He touched the wringer, seemingly amazed and enamored with this wash-day anachronism. He was walking towards a lovely yellow vintage wringer washing machine that from a distance looked like it had not been used often. “This was when women had it tough,” he said to the two other people with him. More so if one lived in space constrained housing such as an apartment.The man made the statement in jest, but it was oh-so-true. ![]() It was a variation of the many small washers that used manual labor meant for doing small loads such as lady's things, baby things, or perhaps a load of laundry such as a load of napkins, towels (woven not terry), one or two shirts/blouses, socks, etc. That tub and wringer "One Minute Washer" shown on Worthpoint originally came with a hand powered agitator. The washer was powered by a half-horsepower gasoline engine, which made the model a natural for the unelectrified farmlands of America." (Maytag bought out the other interests in Parsons and changed the company name in 1909) got around the problem by introducing the Multi-Motor model in 1914. The companies were successful but the main problem with the washers was that, except for the Automatic, they required human power, and even the Automatic was of limited use because electricity was still something of a novelty.īut the Maytag Co. In 1907, Fred Maytag started selling a washer, the Pastime, also based on the One Minute. Woodrow started the Automatic Washer Co., which sold a version of the One Minute that was powered by electricity. "The epidemic took the form of a severe case of copycat-itis. ![]()
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