Early electric irons, self-heating flat irons, sad irons

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nips & tongs</a></li> <li><a href="/medieval-tablecloths.aspx">Tablecloths</a></li> <li><a href="/tinderbox.aspx">Tinderboxes</a></li> <li><a href="/washing-beetles-possing.aspx">Washing bats and beetles</a></li> <li><a href="/washing-dollies.aspx">Washing dollies</a></li> <li><a href="/sitemap.htm"><b>List of all articles</b></a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class="sideMenu"> <li class="here">   </li> </ul> <br /> <blockquote class="palefullwidth"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/oldandinteresting"> <img src="images/bg/rss.jpg" class="floatLeft" style="font-style: italic" /></a>Subscribe to <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/oldandinteresting">RSS feed</a> or get <a href="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=918986&loc=en_US"> email</a> updates.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote class="palefullwidth"> <em>The electric flat iron plays also an important part in the laundry as it is clean and never gets too hot nor too cold and there is no rushing back to replenish the heaters. One is not obliged to remain in the room with a hot stove, and suffer the inconveniences. No heat is felt at all from the iron as it is all concentrated on the bottom surface. It is a regular blessing to the laundress especially in hot weather. There is a growing demand in all parts of the country [USA] for these electric flat-irons.</em><br /> Paul Severing, <em>Marvels of Modern Science</em>, c1910</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote class="palefullwidth"> <em>The electrical exhibition officially opened by Sir William Preece at Olympia, London, on Saturday illustrates in a striking way the remarkable developments which have taken place in recent years in every branch of electrical science. <br /> ... Practical demonstrations are given of laundry work, electric irons and other up-to-date apparatus being used.<br /> </em>The Scotsman, 1911</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote class="palefullwidth"> <center> <script type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </center> </blockquote> <br /> <blockquote class="palefullwidth"> <em>Then the epoch has appeared which may be properly styled the "Happy" or "Golden Age". For many cares and sorrows will be removed at once. The conscientious housekeeper, for instance, whose domestic duties often exhaust her bodily strength, will find her burdens greatly lightened. She has no more to suffer from the intolerable heat of her cooking-stove...<br /> ...In like manner the electric flat-iron will smoothen her linen without fatiguing her. But not only the lady of the house will rejoice; also the poor, hen-pecked husband will be in transports of delight, as it will make his path easier in many ways. The constant complaints he was hitherto obliged to endure, will grow mute for ever...<br /> </em>Johanna S. Wisthaler, <em>By Water to the Columbian Exposition</em>, 1894</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote class="palefullwidth"> <em>Sales of vacuum cleaners in 1924 are estimated at 1,250,000, valued at $69,000,000, and of electric irons 2,500,000 valued at $14,750,000.<br /> </em>New York Times, 1925</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote class="palefullwidth"> <em>Electric Iron Wins Poll, with Radio Set Second<br /> A radio receiving set is the most essential household electrical appliance, next to the electric iron, according to a survey among 1017 housewives in New Jersey conducted by McCall's Magazine. The votes were as follows: irons, 68.9 per cent; radios, 64.4; vacuum cleaners, 63.3; refrigerators, 38; washing machines, 36.3.<br /> </em>New York Times, 1935</blockquote> <br /> <br /> <br /> <blockquote class="palefullwidth"> <center> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UO9ULQ?ie=UTF8&tag=oldint-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000UO9ULQ"> <img border="0" src="z westinghouse.jpg"></a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=oldint-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000UO9ULQ" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" /> <br /> DVD about Westinghouse history, including its rivalry with Edison's General Electric, from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UO9ULQ?ie=UTF8&tag=oldint-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000UO9ULQ"> Amazon.com</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=oldint-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000UO9ULQ" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" /> </center> </blockquote> <br /> <br /> </div> <div class="width78 floatRight"> <div class="maintext"> <h1> Early electric irons</h1> <h3> Electrical self-heating flat-irons, electric sad-irons</h3> <p> <img class="floatRight" alt="Better than three irons ilustrated ad" title="1920s ad for Waage electric iron" src="images/waageironad.jpg " />The search for a foolproof "self-heating flat iron" was under way by the mid-19th century. In 1852 a patent was issued in the US for a new, improved charcoal-burning iron which would make "practicable the permanent heating of smoothing irons". By 1860 there were <a href="/gas-irons.aspx"> gas irons</a> available in several countries, with rubber tubing to connect them to gas light fittings or to canisters, and then there were numerous designs for irons with internal burners and little piggyback tanks of liquid fuel. </p> <p> <a href="photocredit.aspx#Laundry"> <img class="floatLeft" alt="vintage electric sad iron" width="200px" title="Early electric iron - cord absent" src="images/earlyelectriciron.jpg " /> </a>Any inventor who had ever been near the room where ironing was done knew it was a hot, tiring job. Whatever the weather, the housewife/laundress would work beside a hot stove or hearth, with at least two irons, probably three, moving them from stove to ironing table and back again in a cycle of heating, pressing and re-heating. Meanwhile she must keep the irons spotlessly clean with no trace of ash to soil the clean linen.</p> <p> As we now know, the electric iron solved these problems better than any other self-heating apparatus, while <a href="/antique-irons-smoothers-mangles.aspx#boxirons">charcoal-filled irons</a> remain popular today in many less-electrified parts of the world. By the early 1880s more than one person had considered powering ironing with electricity, but <a href="#seely">Henry W. Seely</a> of New York was the first inventor to make this idea workable and patent it too. Seely developed a design in 1881, got a patent in 1882, and then worked with his partner, Dyer, to patent a different "electric flat iron" in 1883. <img class="floatLeft" alt="Irons wired up to electricity diagrams" title="Seely's patents for electric sad-irons" src="images/seelyselectricirons.gif " /> Seely and Dyer had doubts about having the iron continuously plugged in, as "connecting [it] permanently with the circuit [...] may be inconvenient in some cases". They invented a sort of "cordless" iron, on a stand heated by electricity. (Lower picture left) This echoed developments in using gas for ironing, where gas-fed iron-heaters or ironing-stoves were serious rivals to irons on lengths of rubber tubing.</p> <p> <a href="photocredit.aspx#Laundry"> <img class="floatRight" alt="Electric cord from ceiling to iron" title="Ironing in Pennsylvania, 1938" src="images/electriciron1938.jpg" /> </a>Uncertain claims that there was an even earlier electric iron in France seem to be connected with <a href="http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/images/I059/10325625.aspx"> two different dates</a> given to an <a href="http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/domestic_appliances/1928-709.aspx"> early French iron</a> in  London's Science Museum. However, <a href="http://museelr.chez.com/origines.htm"> this French museum expert</a> is sceptical about such claims.</p> <p> By the early 20th century enthusiasm was building for the new electric smoothing irons: clean, powerful, adjustable, and labour-saving. </p> <blockquote> <em>...not only the lady of the house will rejoice; also the poor, hen-pecked husband will be in transports of delight...<br /> </em>(Johanna Wisthaler, 1894 - see left-hand column)</blockquote> <p> They didn't make you roasting hot, and they didn't carry soot or ash. As the advertisement says, they were better than three flat irons. And yet, there were still plenty of traditionalists who stuck with flat irons (aka sad irons) well into the middle of the 20th century, even when they lived in a home with a good electricity supply.</p> <p> The <a href="http://www.idsa.org/content/hotpoint-electric-iron-1905">Hotpoint iron</a>, designed by Earl H. Richardson of Ontario, California, was launched in 1905, and was the first electric iron to have any commercial success. By the 1920s enough people had homes wired for electricity for electric clothes irons to spread fast across the US. They were also selling well in some parts of Europe. By 1932 17.5 percent of Swiss homes had one, more than in the US, according to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iv谩n_Berend"> Iv谩n Berend</a> in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521672686/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=oldint-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0521672686"> An Economic History of Twentieth-Century Europe</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=oldint-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0521672686&camp=217145&creative=399349" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" />. </p> <p> The Waage ad (above right) for an iron with hot, medium, and low settings, appeared in the 1920s. By the 1930s the iron's only rival for "most popular electrical home appliance" was the radio. In 1941 79 per cent of American households had an electric iron, according to the <em>Monthly Labor Review</em> for December 1945. </p> <blockquote> <em>I, Henry W. Seely... have invented a new and useful electric flat-iron...<br /> The object of my invention is to utilize electric currents derived from any suitable source of electric energy for the purpose of heating flat-irons, fluting-irons, and other similar utensils. To accomplish this object I place within the iron and close to its face a resistance, preferably of carbon, and of such size and shape that it will heat the face of the irons sufficiently and equally. This resistance has terminals, by means of which it may be connected in an electric circuit, preferably a multiple arc circuit of an electric lighting system</em>.... (Written in 1881)<br /> </blockquote> <br /> <h3> More about vintage electric irons</h3> <p> Note that most of the early irons have the electric cord pointing upward towards a ceiling light fitting.</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.linnell/sso/ironsstandard.html">Electric irons, from 1919</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/images/I068/10405831.aspx"> 'Smoothwell' electric iron, 1935</a> </li> <li><a href="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.linnell/sso/ironsthermostat.html">Irons with thermostatic controls, from 1935</a></li><li><a href="http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/images/I012/10240906.aspx"> HMV 'Ceramic' electric iron, c 1936</a></li></ul> <br /> <blockquote> For the 1883 patent, Seely and Dyer wrote:<br /> <em>...The other object being to provide a more durable flat-iron, and one which can be more readily repaired in the old form, and also to provide a means for heating such irons without connecting them permanently with the circuit, which may be inconvenient in some cases. In carrying out our invention we use, as the heating resistance contained in the base of the iron, instead of the carbon sticks of the patent referred to, a layer of some pulverized or finely divided substance which is a highly resistant conductor of electricity. This may be lamp black or powdered carbon of other character...</em></blockquote> <br /> <p> <img src="images/2ndleaf.gif" style="border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-bottom: medium none" /> 29 August  2007 </p> <br /> <center> <script type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </center> <br /> <h3 id="seely"> Who was Henry W. Seely?</h3> <p> <strong>WARNING</strong> <em>Watch out for incorrect biographical information repeated on various websites - probably a hoax - scroll down for more info.</em></p> <p> Biographical information on Henry W. Seely is scarce, but we know he was connected with people who are better-known figures in American history.</p> <p> In 1882 he kept only one third of the rights in his now his famous electric flat-iron patent and assigned the other two thirds to <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/insull_hi.html"> Samuel Insull</a> and Richard N. Dyer, <a href="http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/edison/default.asp"> Thomas Edison's</a> patent attorney. At that time Seely was in New York City, but in 1883 patent documents say he was "of Menlo Park, New Jersey". </p> <p> He was a witness to many of Edison's patents, including his 1881 "incandescing electric lamp". For a couple of years in the early 1880s the H. W. Seely signature appeared on more than 100 patents, and he went on acting as an occasional witness up to 1892. </p> <p> Henry W. Seely was in partnership with Dyer for some years, but Dyer had other legal/business partnerships too. Dyer & Seely are often mentioned in a collection of <a href="http://edison.rutgers.edu/search.htm"> Edison's papers</a> and the firm is named in <em>New York Times</em> reports of major legal cases defending Edison's light bulb and phonograph patents. But it was Dyer who appeared in court, not Seely. The Dyer family were socially prominent (in East Orange, NJ), but apparently Seely was not.</p> <p> <a href="photocredit.aspx#Laundry"> <img class="floatRight" alt="Electric cord from ceiling to iron" title="Ironing in India, 2006" src="images/indianwomanironing.jpg" /></a> Did he have any idea how useful and popular "his" invention might become? The 1883 patent suggests he and Dyer had their doubts about the practicality of an iron that had to be hooked up to an electric circuit. Was he right to doubt his own version of the electric iron? How much, if anything, did Seely's invention have to do with Richardson's Hotpoint iron which was successfully manufactured and marketed (unlike Seely's)?</p> <p> <em>Warning:</em> If you see a "biography" claiming Seely was born in Richville, KY, this is almost certainly based on an <em>ehow</em> page, now removed, that I believe started as a "joke". As far as I know there is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richville"> no Richville, KY</a>, and no evidence that Seely had 5 children, some with unusual names like Gintal. Dates and other details are probably bogus too. Unfortunately they have been picked up on various webpages, including another <em>ehow</em> page. </p> <p> Please <a href="/contact.aspx">get in touch</a> if you know more about Seely's life. I've done some preliminary research and hope to put together some more biographical info later this year. </p> <br /> <p> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.oldandinteresting.com/vintage-electric-irons.aspx&title=Early electric irons"> <img alt="StumbleUpOnlogo" src="images/stumbleuponlogo.jpg" style="border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-bottom: medium none" title="StumbleUpon button" /></a>  <a href="http://www.delicious.com/save"> <img alt="Delicious" src="images/deliciousicon.jpg" style="border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-bottom: medium none" title="Delicious" /></a> <br /> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oldandinteresting.com%2Fvintage-electric-irons.aspx&layout=standard&show_faces=false&width=450&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=35" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none; overflow: hidden; width: 450px; height: 35px;" allowtransparency="true"></iframe> </p> <p> See also:</p> <ul class="plain"> <li><a href="antique-irons-smoothers-mangles.aspx">History of ironing</a></li> <li><a href="history-ironing-boards.aspx">Ironing boards</a></li><li><a href="fluting-goffering-irons.aspx"> Fluting and goffering irons</a></li><li><a href="Korean-ironing.aspx">Korean ironing sticks</a></li><li><a href="charcoal-irons.aspx">Charcoal irons with roosters</a></li></ul> <br /> <p> <script type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </p> <p> <a href="#top">Back to top of page</a><br /> </p> <br /> </div> <br /> </div> <div class="width78 floatRight"> <div class="maintext"> <br /> <blockquote> You may like our new sister site <a href="http://www.homethingspast.com/">Home Things Past</a> where you'll find articles about antiques, vintage kitchen stuff, crafts, and other things to do with home life in the past. There's space for comments and discussion too. Please do take a look and add your thoughts.  (Comments don't appear instantly.)</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> For sources please refer to the <a href="books.aspx" title="Books">books</a> page, and/or the excerpts quoted on the pages of this website, and note that many links lead to museum sites. Feel free to <a href="contact.aspx">ask</a> if you're looking for a specific reference - feedback is always welcome anyway. 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Early electric irons, self-heating flat irons, sad irons