The Secret Life of the Home
On Display
Wilcox and Gibbs chain stitch sewing machine, a design based on patents Wilcox & Gibbs obtained up to 1883, complete with wooden box. This particular machine was made using the principles of the 'American system' of manufacture by its contracted make
Early electric iron of unusual construction. The soleplate is heated by passing a current across carbon arc electrodes. The hazards of fire and injury to the user made this method dangerous and short-lived.
The invention of the vacuum cleaner is generally credited to Hubert Cecil Booth.
Wooden domestic washing machine, electrically driven, with mangle, made by Beatty Bros. of Canada, c. 1920
Daisy' no. 2 vacuum cleaner, c. 1914
Gas cooker manufactured to a design of Alfred King of Liverpool for installation in Lionel Nathan Rothschild's house at 148 Piccadilly, with hotplate comprising three concentric aerated drilled-tube burners and a false oven, English, 1859
Cast iron pressure cooker of four quart capacity, with latches to secure the lid and steam release safety valve in centre of lid, by E. Pugh and Co., Wednesbury, West Midlands, 1850-1870
Automatic tea-making machine patented by Frank Clarke of Birmingham, in 1902.
Dutch oven, a device for speeding up the roasting of small meats in front of an open fire, with basting spoon and with brass spring-driven bottle jack by Mather and Armstrong of Newcastle, English, 1850-1900
Ventilating fan with gas-powered hot air engine and tilting fan designed to compete with electrically driven fans, of cast iron construction painted Lincoln green, patent no. 16,043 in 1909, by Brockway and Phillips, Lincolnshire, 1909-1920