1920's Electrical Appliances
It is rather amazing to think how far we have come in 85 years or so in relation to our standard of living. A look back at 1920’s electrical appliances provides evidence of this.
1920's Electrical Appliances
The period of the 1920's was a time when several major trends in how human beings lived came together at the same time. It was a time of convergence. Ever since people moved out of caves and into homes of any kind there was a great deal of work that needed to be done to run a household. This work was performed by women and along with the raising of children tended to occupy the majority of their time. Very little changed in the work load of the housekeeper for thousands of years. Even very rich women had the responsibility of overseeing the work of servants or slaves who performed the actual work.
Beginning in the 19th century there was an Industrial Revolution. It was a time when machines were being invented to do the kind of work that previously had been done by hand. Although most of the development was aimed at the workplace or the farm, some of it spilled over into the domestic front. These were the first household appliances, but for the most part they did not free the housekeeper's time. Some additional work was made possible, but that was all. The major problem was power. The only available source of power was coal and oil. These fuels caused pollution and left a sooty cover over everything. Cleaning up after this power source created more time consuming labor than was being saved.
It was the sudden availability of power that changed this and opened the way for a new era. There was much social movement that was aimed at increasing the role of women in society, but first they needed to be set free from the endless chores of housekeeping. In the 1920's, homes began to be wired and supplied with electrical power, and suddenly appliances were able to reduce the work time that women spent in housekeeping. At this time, most advertising of appliances stressed this fact. Electricity was going to set women free from the age old drudgery of housekeeping. Electricity was the savior and the appliances that ran on electricity were going to be the keys to unlock the chains.
Suddenly, there was a rush of new products. These early appliances were primitive by today's standards, but despite their lack of sophistication, they did change how people lived drastically. A man named James Ryan wrote a book published in England in 1929 that listed the appliances that could be found in an average home. They was a washing machine, a vacuum cleaner, a refrigerator, a flat iron, a toaster, a percolator, heating pads, corn poppers, and a vibrator. It was now possible for women to enter the work force in greater numbers, and still maintain a household.
The social change made possible by the introduction of electricity and the use of household appliances made everything different in the way families lived within their own homes. For better or worse, nothing was ever going to be the same again.