Oldest, working, electric device that you use.

Tom Dunlap

Tom Dunlap

Here from the beginning
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Retired in Minneapolis
This article, and replies, about the oldest working TV in the UK, a 1936 Marconiphone, got me thinking about old gear that is still in service.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8159406.stm

I have a first generation Sony Walkman that is in perfect condition...and a box of cassettes to go with it.

The Milwaukee 3/8" drill has gotten so hot many times that I had to put it down and carefully run the motor to cool it down. It was bought in about '80 and has never been opened up for greasing or new brushes. The cord is original but the plug has been replaced twice.

The Milwaukee circle saw has had new brushes and lubing, again about '80, but not full time use.

The Sony Trinitron got repaired last spring because the power supply got knocked out during the move from Atlanta to Dallas. Still had a great picture until the HD changeover. I didn't get a conversion box so I don't watch TV...no loss.

The waffle iron I have was a wedding gift of my folks, 1947. It makes waffles with three generations of love!

What's your oldest electric appliance still in use?
 
General electric barrel fan, two speed, fabric cord, 1/2hp motor...circa 1936. Runs every night. Singer Featherweight sewing machine, 1938...refastened my Job and Genoa sails last year with it.

Have a couple other powertools, pre-60's, they're works of art but don't use them. Also two RCA radios from the 30's. This here's a working ranch so the windmill, tractor, and most implements are pre-war and functional out of necessity.

You got me to thinking about the time America produced these goods by people who were secure in their jobs, proudly made something substantial and everything could be repaired...not to mention their children could inherit these jobs. Most engineering was calculated by men who never elected to go beyond the 8th grade, using old math and no. 2 lead pencils. Making these works of industrial art once grew and supported a great nation.

Now the names of dependability (Motorola, Zenith, Westinghouse, etc.) are just commodities themselves, sold over and again and meaningless to as their first use, based in wherever the cheapest labor, the most profitable cost-cutting techniques are employed. Buy, use once, and throw away...impossible to repair and the reason thousands of container vessels ply the oceans and burn precious fuels. In this regard I support high-seas piracy.

Blah-blah humbug. There's a drought. And it's hot. And WalMart don't sell what we used to make.
 
My sewing machine is a Pfaff that was built in about '53. Last winter I had to replace the cords and plugs. It still hammers through about anything that I put under the foot.
 
The Pfaff had power, fo sure. My (mom's old) Singer is portable and heavy, but even though the HP is rated low, it'll punch through things the modern digital plastic crap won't even track. If you're like we were in the 50's & 60's Twin cities, all of our curtains, my pre-school clothes, the upholstery and all the stuffed toys were made by Ma's hands and the whirr of the sewing machine, fabric from Minnetonka Mill's stores.

Today we have Zanax, leased Volvo's and personal trainers, fashion clothes from Marshall's (China) and boobs by Dr. Botox.

Dad had to buy a Black and Decker 3/8ths drill only once. I inherited his 50-foot hickory extension ladder (200lbs). He bought that before WW2. His fishing tackle, I found out, is worth thousands...he paid pennies. Now I'm loaded with guilt for the hundreds of his lures I lost in the weeds when I was but a wee lad. Is there still a Bemidji Woolen Mills? I still have socks from there. Red Wing shoes were real shoes made by people in Red Wing, who also wore them to work and could retire after 30 years working there.

Off track, but lamenting the days America made something besides Fisher Price plastic backyard playscapes (China again) and wastes billions of gallons of oil transporting cheap crap in from where terror is a by-product of our thirst.

I have one of the first come-a-longs, found at auction down the road. Must be from the fifties. Rated one ton, it's outlasted three (3) of the Chinese ones, cost me $2.00. The last one I mail-ordered was rated for 2T, broke when I pulled a log off my truck (300 lbs?).
 
oakwilt you get a X 2 on all that, keep preaching man. people wonder why we are in a depression! look around no jobs = no money. nothing is made well anymore because it might last to long and the rich might not get as rich! and the consumer is the one creating the problem! no one wants to spend a dollar for a quality product. they would rather buy 10 new ones as opposed to one good one. this falls all the way into tree work, why pay someone to do the job right when we can get someone to do the job for half they just don't do the clean up don't get all the dead wood and leave the stump 4' off the ground instead of grinding it and they use illegal aliens for a work force and don't pay them anything. people wonder how the fascist Nazis' took power.
 
Hello all. Good thread. I think the oldest electrical device I have still in operation is a Spartus digital alarm clock from the early 80's (made in Hong Kong).

My favorite items that I use on a regular basis aren't electric. They're old oil lamps that were used at one time by both sides of my family. All are from the early 1900's and work just as good today as I'm sure they did back then.

Oak and Jeff, your words strike a cord. I personally am all for a "global economy", but my version has us making everything and selling it to everyone else.

Something else that irks me....American flags made in China. I've gladly paid more for American flags made here in the U.S. (by the Valley Forge Flag Co.) The quality is far superior and my conscious is clear.

I know not everyone shares my views, so I'll get off my soapbox now.

- BarnHouse
 
I use an Oster blender to make breakfast every day. I don't know the date, but it was a wedding gift to my great-aunt-in-law, who is now 95. I'd make it around mid-50's.

k
 
It's wierd when bidding for or visiting some of the locals around here who are the seventh generation of German immigrants who settled the area. Still speaking low Dutch...thriftier than anyone I've ever known...most have a "town car" they bought new, for cash, in 1964 and still think roundworm infections are caused by something that crawled in under the kitchen door and arthritis (pronounced "atritis") can be cured with Chlorox bleach.

Walking into their homes is like going back 50 years in a time machine. Even the smells are ancient and stir memories of fat grandma's cooking porridge with raisens. Old linoleum tacked-down with tin plates and roofing nails, butter churns still used, and cupboards full of Mason jars and the strange mix of pre-sixties colors and fabrics (the call the sitting room "new" 'cause it was remodelled in '49. Their toasters look like Pullman passenger cars from the 30's, and they still make and eat head cheese, offering you some like it was a rare honor. Most of the work done for them has to involve trade instead of cash...more than fair enough.

They're dying off, kids or relations get the homes...and when it's done they're either bulldozed or transformed into some Yuppie wet dream of what America used to be, including moonlighting in the trees, exotic African hardwood flooring and Gucci-influenced water features dripping Zen for the Koi. My bids then transform too...from a case of quart jars of pickled peppers and carrots to a grand of greenbacks, compounded quarterly, Visa and Mastercard accepted.
 
The two flags that I have both came from the road.

The one I just picked up is printed cloth, about 8x10 with a plastic stake. It was laying in the crosswalk at a busy intersection. By the looks it had been in that spot for quite a while, under many tires. It looks like it's been on the ground for quite a while. Sad to see...and I'm not a big flag waiving guy.

My bigger flag is a nice silky one. Sewn bars and embroidered stars.

That one was found on the shoulder of a major freeway in a major town...thousands of cars pass by the spot every day. As I was driving...at least the speedlimit, probably faster...I looked ahead and saw the stars and bars. As I flashed past I saw taht it was a flag and not a pillow case. I pulled off the freeway and scooted back to pick up the flag. Kinda like bringing home a stray dog or cat.
 
Tom are you venting? Causes what you just posted has nothing to do with oldest electric device you still use? Please keep to the threads and start a new one if you'd like about flags.
 
My heating pad - for ear aches - was my grandfather's...who died in '63. It kind of stinks when set to high.

If we're talking about old appliances still in use, we can't help but mention who made them when and where. It's not poetic laments from the past as much as an era that no longer or can't ever exist again. The flag is case in point.

Edsel and Pontiac are memories, but one will cost a fortune at auction while the other is destined for the crusher, not worthy a mention of our once-great past and accomplishments.
 
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