SERVANTS from the Laboratories (Jan, 1947)

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SERVANTS from the Laboratories

TEN pounds of clothes are washed, rinsed and damp-dried in 30 minutes by the Akka automatic washer, at right. The machine swishes soapy water through the clothes 144 times a minute. When the washer is done, a rubber lining in the lower half of the sphere hydraulically presses the clothes against the washer’s perforated top and removes 92 per cent of the soap. Then the washer rinses out the rest with cold water and, finally, squeezes water from the clothes.

Add the Cory automatic brewer, at left, to the new utensils that make the modern kitchen a pleasure. Merely put in water and coffee. The brewer does the rest, even keeping the coffee at the right temperature.

Designed to supply full-flavored coffee, the Cory AC-DC electric grinder, at right, holds a pound of beans. At the turn of a switch, it delivers any type of grind and any amount desired in a measuring cup.

Exactly as radar is directed at an airplane, so energy is beamed from a magnetron tube to food being cooked in the radically new Radarange above. The cooker prepares a hot dog in eight seconds, a six-pound roast in two minutes, gingerbread and biscuits in 29 seconds. The explanation is that the beam heats the interior of the food as quickly as it does the surface. Meats cooked by it emerge gray; baked goods, crustless. Inset at right shows a food container about to be placed in the range. Produced by the Raytheon Mfg. Co., Radarange will not be available for home use for some time, since the firm is concentrating on supplying commercial food preparers with the ranges.

Motorless and fully run by normal home-water pressure, the new Kaiser dishwasher at right washes, rinses and dries a service for four in five minutes. It has only two connections, one to a hot-water source, another to a drain. In washing, eight water jets in the chamber spurt water on the dishes, spin the wire dish tray and agitate the washing solution. When finished, the lid is lifted, the tray is raised and the basket continues to spin for two minutes to dry the dishes. The cutaway view in the inset shows the aluminum machine’s three controls and its dish basket in a raised position. One control raises the basket, another regulates the flow of water, the third operates the drain.

  1. Myles says: July 17, 20087:22 am

    “The cooker prepares …, a six-pound roast in two minutes” But you wouldn’t want to eat it. I’m still waiting for that 5 minute dishwasher.

  2. LightningRose says: July 17, 20089:31 am

    Five minute dishwasher?

    Sounds like my dog. ;)

  3. Toronto says: July 17, 200811:33 am

    That Radar Range appears to leak microwave somewhat, doesn’t it? There’s no enclosed “oven”.

    And that dishwasher spin dries your plates OUTSIDE the machine? Won’t that get water all over the place?

  4. Rick Auricchio says: July 17, 20086:52 pm


    1. The metal food-cooking basket traps the microwaves. Depending on the frequency of the microwaves, the holes in the basket don’t allow any leakage. The basket is grounded while contacting the metal frame of the appliance.

    2. I presume the dishwasher rack spins at a slow enough speed so that it doesn’t throw water around. (But spinning out of control, throwing plates, would have been a fun thing for a cartoon!)

  5. Rick Auricchio says: July 17, 20086:56 pm

    Charlie, there was a Popular Science article in the 50s/60s explaining the operation of the automatic vacuum coffeemaker.

    My parents had the Sunbeam all-stainless unit from the 60s. Water went in the bottom vessel; coffee up top. As the water boiled, steam forced it up the tube into the upper vessel. The little water remaining below continued heating, bubbling steam up which agitated the water/coffee mixture above, till the thermostat cut off. A few minutes later, cooling caused a vacuum that sucked the brewed coffee down from above. You separated upper and lower vessels and poured from the lower vessel. After the thermostat cut off the high brewing heat, the heat remained at a keep-warm level.

  6. StanFlouride says: July 18, 200811:40 am

    The squeezing clothes washer brings to mind an article I read a while back about the development of washing machines. Wringing out the clothes was a major obstacle and Maytag’s invention of the Spin Cycle revolutionized the industry.

  7. Toronto says: July 18, 200811:58 am

    Rick – I understand microwaves not going through a hole (like the screens in the doors of current designs.) But the baskets appear to hang from a lip like a Fry-o-lator basket, so the seal on the top is questionable. Remember, this was designed for a busy commercial kitchen.

    I supposed there could be a spring- or hydralic-lifter to press it into place, though.

  8. Rick Auricchio says: July 19, 200810:12 am

    Ah, I didn’t look that closely to see the details. Hopefully the basket’s top went up into that front “chute.”

    Let’s see…1947…anyone know some old chef who might have used this device? Or are they all gone…

  9. Rick Auricchio says: July 19, 200810:12 am

    The chefs, not the microwave cookers.

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