Household Tasks Simplified With These New Inventions (May, 1932)
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1932
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Wow, I thought the Butter Churn/Washing Machine was cool, but it’s got nothing on the washer/ironer/polisher/sharpener/dough kneader/cocktail shaker/fat jiggler/reducer on this page!
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Household Tasks Simplified With These New Inventions
This machine, operated by electricity, will wash and iron clothes, wash, rinse and dry dishes, scour pots and pans, polish silverware and sharpen cutlery; in fact, perform a multitude of household tasks. In addition it kneads dough or shakes cocktails, and serves on occasion as an exerciser and reducer.
Electricity has now ousted the traditional candle from its rightful place on the birthday cake and put electric lights on the job. Base of this new lighting system, shown at right, has twelve sockets fitting on bottom of cake.
Suitable for removing anything from a bottle cap to a fruit jar lid, this contrivance makes use of a special steel cable which encircles the lid and which is drawn taut by an adjustable lever. Because the cable exerts even pressure all around, a positive grip is obtained without damaging the lid. Rear end of the handle is notched to form a bottle cap remover.
It is an easy matter to keep shoes of a pair together with twin shoe trees now on the market. Instead of being separated, the two spring steel trees are connected by a piece of metal firmly riveted in place. Shoes are thus held side by side.
Considerable less muscle power is required in shining your shoes with this vibrating polisher. You simply wind up the key, then press lightly on the push button and the brush works back and forth to put on a good gloss. One winding session will operate the mechanism for twelve or fifteen minutes. On the top is a dabbler for applying the polish.
This new comb cleaner consists of a series of parallel threads attached to end loops of rust-proof metal. In use, one loop is hooked over a nail or other support and the other is grasped in the hand, as illustrated. The comb is cleaned by combing the threads back and forth the length of the threads, as illustrated above.
Is that Stan Laurel in drag?
Comment by Eamon — December 30, 2008 @ 2:08 pm
Stan Laurel! Good one Eamon! As to the machine he-she is operating, apparently it does just about everything around the house so why don’t we still have it now or did it disappear in yet another government cover-up?
Comment by Rick — December 30, 2008 @ 2:56 pm
Eh, I watched March of the Wooden Soldiers this weekend and now I see him everywhere.
Also, cocktail maker and exercise machine combo? Sign me up. And I just saw an infomercial for that jar opener.
Comment by Eamon — December 30, 2008 @ 5:17 pm
Strap wrenches are great for removing jar lids.
Comment by LightningRose — December 30, 2008 @ 5:43 pm
It took me a minute to figure out what I was looking at in the birthday cake picture. My first impression was a magnification of bacterial colonies growing in a petri dish, but the three lights above them were perplexing.
Comment by beagledad — December 30, 2008 @ 8:03 pm
At first I thought the thing on the right page on top of the egg looks like a light bulb.
Comment by Al Bear — December 31, 2008 @ 10:36 am
That do everything dishwasher reminds me of an uncle’s Kirby vacuum cleaner. This was in the fifties, I was looking through the thick instruction manual for the device and saw a bewildering array of attachments available. Besides the usual assortment of wands, brushes, crevice tools, etc., there was a wide assortment of unrelated things that essentially used the vacuum just for the motor. There was a polishing wheel, blender, knife sharpener, paint sprayer, and even a circular saw! It probably cost more than his scandalously expensive 24 inch TV set. (It was quite a treat to watch the Rose Bowl Parade on his giant black and white screen)
Comment by George — December 31, 2008 @ 11:17 am
I am definitely going to buy my arthritic step-dad a new oil filter wrench to open jars! I’ll probably put several layers of rubber Tool-Dip on the handle to make it more Oxo like.
Comment by StanFlouride — December 31, 2008 @ 11:59 pm
Ah, Tool-Dip/Plasti-Dip. It’s freakin’ expensive in Canada for some reason.
Hey, Charlie – what’s the earliest reference to that stuff in the literature? PM/MI/PS, etc, I mean.
Comment by Toronto — January 1, 2009 @ 1:40 am
Not only does a slice of cake weighing 2 oz. not need to be supported on the top, it doesn’t need some chunk of metal pushing down on the top and mucking up the frosting.
Comment by Charlene — January 1, 2009 @ 10:37 am
Toronto: Actually I have no idea. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it in PM from the 40’s…
Comment by Charlie — January 1, 2009 @ 6:14 pm
Now all we need is for someone to make CFL-shaped salt and pepper shakers.
Comment by nlpnt — January 3, 2009 @ 11:07 pm