ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Electrical Nostalgia Attitudes to domestic equipment

An interesting article from June 1964 about British reticence in adopting new equipment:
https://www.electrical-contractor.net/pc/Attitude1964.jpg

I find it hard to believe that in 20th century Great Britain, people in urban/suburban environments were still cooking on hearth fires instead of using cookers connected to town or bottled gas.

That's the kind of thing I expect to see in farm houses.

A couple months ago I saw a series called "No. 57, The History Of A House", about a Regency era terrace house in Bristol UK. It never received elecricity until the 1960s, and that gas (not sure if town or bottled gas), at least for lighting in the 1900s, and I think in the 1930s a gas cooker.

Good Lord,
Haven't things changed as far as journalism is concerned, since 1964??.
Blame the house-wife, indeed, you wouldn't get away with that sort of talk these days.
These days, it's "Men??, who are they??."

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 07-06-2006).]

Well that's a relief to hear! After seeing the ad. for the new Terios on Daihatsu's NZ site, I thought you were still very sexist down there. The Terios being a small 4x4, the ad. says "4WD = For Women Drivers".

I don't think many of them were cooking on fires. The gas cooker was pretty popular for a very long time.

Automatic washing machines and dryers took an unusually long time to become universal. There were still plenty of non-automatic machines in use in the 1970s!!

The "twin tub" machines remained popular here for a very long time.

My wife was using a twin tub washer untill the early 90s.

She still insists it got the clothes cleaner than an automatic machine and would have one back in an instant.......

We moved into a brand-new council house in 1953 - I was 10 years old. The tiny kitchen had one gas ring and a gas-fired galvanised tub which was used to heat water for washing clothes. There was a built-in coal-fired range in the living room which consisted of a back-boiler (domestic hot water) and an oven at the side of the coal fire. Electric power sockets were few and far between; one in the main bedroom; none in the other bedroom; a double socket in the living room; and a single socket in the kitchen (we were posh, we had an electric kettle).
I've just (Feb 2010) discovered this forum - fascinating stuff!

Welcome to ECN Bruce.

I was bought up in what would now be described as a poor 'working class' home, [ that is, we were permanently broke!] and I never saw anyone cooking over open fires as a boy except tramps [ er...hobos ] - and boy scouts. We had a range, a blacked-iron coal fired oven with hot plates. Ma polished the living daylights out of it with 'Zebrite', a mixture of graphite and boot polish, so it shone like a mirror. It had to be managed like a steam engine, and could turn our entire 2 up 2 down into a hothouse while baking or boiling. Other days, if the wind was in the wrong direction, it just filled the place with smoke and sulferous smuts! Sukie [the kettle] sat whimpering and whispering on it 24/7 for the interminal rounds of tea partaken by the Brits in those times. Some models even had a tea-boiler with a brass tap to provide everlasting brews of the stuff! We had gas lights and took candles up to bed till the 'leccy was fitted in 1954.
Happy days!