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Jan. 19, 1956. Wellington, New Zealand. "Anthony and Paul Banks with a Hoover washing machine." The pint-size washer for small families. View full size.
This Hoover could well be named the 'Boy Scout' because it often tied clothes in Reef Knots.
By the same company that made the famous vacuum cleaners? A very old and respected name even by then.
My mother had this same model. As Max says, the capacity is quite high. Behind the mangle there is a horizontal rubber hose. There is an agitator on the back wall of the tub, under the mangle, and a drain in the base. Water is pumped from the drain through the rubber hose band back into the tub. When you think your clothes are clean enough you switch off the mahcine, disconnect one end of this hose and put it in your kitchen sink. Switching back on then empties the tub. There was a separte hose that fitted over the end of a kitchen tap, allowing you to fill the machine. As far a I know, there was no heater in the machine, so you had to fill it with hot water.
For storage, the handle folds over the mangle and the mangle folds back into the machine. There was an aluminium lid which fitted over the whole thing.
I would assume that all Kiwis are obsessed by camping, milk bars and home appliances.
The capacity of that little machine is greater than it may appear. There is no agitator to take up space in the tub leaving a lot more space for laundry.
There is a fan or propeller type thing on the wall of the tub. Water and air (? there seemed to be lots of bubbles) was recirculated by being forced into the tub through the fan blades. That's how it appeared when I looked at the empty tub in my aunt's Hoover. Her machine had a power wringer/mangle--maybe a later model or for the North American market.
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