JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post  

Washing machines no doubt have been called many things, and they have been named after many great concepts and desires–but I think in the history of naming household appliances, the popular washer produced by Thomas Bradford & Co Laundry Engineers (High Holbron, London and Cathedral Steps, Manchester) in the last part of the 19th century may have had the oddest of them all.   It was the Vowel A–the “Vowel” being the washer and the “A” being the model.  But, still–that was the name of the machine, and it has a definite flavor of the Absurdist to it.

Which is a detail in:

[Source:  Una Roberston, The Illustrated History of the Housewife, 1650-1950, St. Martin’s Press, 1999, pp 86-87.]

There was also the Vowel Large E and the Vowel Y–the “A” seems the best of the lot though, for simplicity and symmetry. 

These washers were evidently great aids in the kitchen delights department, and provided for no disappointment.