Washing Machines: Mid-20th Century Automatic
Factories produced about three times as many machines in 1947 as in 1939. The automatic electric washer became common after World War II (Cowan, 1983, p. 94). Many Americans first used an automatic washing machine in a launderette, or laundromat, in the years after World War II. (The third photo below shows a laundromat ca. 1947 (Bendix, 1950).
