More than three decades ago and fresh off retiring from his career teaching electrical engineering, Lee Maxwell and his wife climbed into their new motor home and headed east toward Maine for a vacation. Halfway through Iowa, they decided to stop for lunch and came across a farm auction. An antique washing machine was up … Continue reading "History comes clean: Laundry through the centuries"
Tom Gasko was about eight years old and walking to school when he found his first vacuum. It was a GE Roll-Easy from 1956. He was immediately fascinated. “It looked like a barrel,” Gasko recalls. “Somebody had thrown it away. My mom said ‘That thing probably has bugs in it.’ I thought it was very … Continue reading "Vacuum Bags, Belts and History: Advice from the Curator of the Vacuum Cleaner Museum"
One of the benefits of home appliances is that they not only make our lives easier, they also keep us looking our best, too. Most women today have never had to experience what life was like before this home appliance revolutionized the way women washed and dried their hair. Although a hair-drying device was first … Continue reading "A Brief, Interesting History of the Hair Dryer"
