Motors

One of the greatest problems faced by manufacturers was selecting an appropriate electric motor for electric washing machines. The motor needed to overcome a high level of inertia before it could reach its operating speed. Manufacturers typically used 1/8 hp or 1/4 hp motors to power washers. Splash-proofing the motor was essential to safely operate these machines since they paired two incompatible and potentially lethal elements: water and electricity. An enclosed housing, equipped with a fan and downward angled vents to prevent overheating protected the stator and the rotor.

The shaft ran through the bottom of the tub in this electric vacuum cup machine produced by the Easy Washing Machine Company Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, 1924 (920124).

Around 1907 the dolly became the earliest form of electric wash technology. A steel chain connected the sprockets of a motor mounted under the tub to sprockets on the dolly mechanism and wringer. By 1910, some manufacturers moved the flywheel gearing closer to the motor. In these cases, a pitman rod set along the side of the tub transferred the rotation of the motor and mechanism up to a toothed slide lever that drove the wash dolly. By the late 1910s, many dolly and vacuum cup washers used a drive shaft through the bottom of the tub to transmit power (920124). This development provided the technological foundation for the introduction of the agitator in the 1920s.