Old equipment your grandparents used

[letsgomaths]

Inspired by the "silly things your mother did" thread, what gadgets or items do you remember your grandparents using, that would seem old-fashioned now?

Mine had a twin tub washing machine, and used it for thirty-five years: appliances were made to last in those days!

They never had a cassette player: all music was played on the Bush radiogram, which had auto-change.

My grandmother was a keen photographer, but never had photos printed: she always used slides, to be looked at with a projector and screen, or more informally, a tabletop slide viewer.

Black bakelite telephone with a dial, and cone round the mouthpiece, rented from BT.

My parents had all these things when I was a child. I remember the huge excitement when we got our first telephone, first fridge and first television. Also the excitement when TV changed from black and white to colour much later. My Nana had a TV before we did, with a screen about 9" square in an absolutely enormous polished wooden cabinet! But the best thing was when we got central heating when I was about 10. It was such luxury - until then we used to wake up to ice on the inside of the bedroom windows in winter!

Good lord my parents had quite a few of these! Ewbank, separate spin machine for use after the washing machine, called a Spinarinse IIRC. We also had the metal thing to attach to the table to grind meat. When we moved into our house (late 70s) there was a massive roller for the grass, to give it those lovely stripes after you'd mown it. Don't remember my dad ever using it tbf .
Both my grandparents had a dedicated telephone table in the hall.
I rented a tv from Radio Rentals in the late 90s

Lacy armchair covers

@HandlebarLadyTash

I remember the tea dispensers!
But only in Wales.... we used to visit my dads Welsh family a couple of times a year and my nan had one, and my dads aunties. Only ever saw one in Wales.

Yes to all the above! We have a Magimix food processor from the 1970s which is still going strong, although it was mine rather than my grandmother's. She was born in the 1890s so never had such luxury! I remember helping her on wash day, she had a fixed copper in a wash house, a dolly peg and a mangle. Mum and her sister used old rags for their periods and put them in a bag for a boiling. (1930s)

In the 1950s Mum had a single tub washer with a mangle that got attached. Before she got a twin tub she had a separate spin drier as well, but it was all really hard work and took all day. Of course we always had rissoles on washday, as the kitchen had been out of action. The twin tub had to be pulled out to be used, blocking everything as PP have said.

BTW the Spong mincer would still be my choice for mincing, rather than the Magimix, it is perfect to get the right texture.

@nimbuscloud

A toasting fork. A long extending fork that you stuck slices of bread on and toasted over an open fire. A butter churn. Chamber pots under beds.

My gran and great-gran both had one of these! You had to get the tines in just right or the bread might fall off into the fire. My great-gran and great-granddad used to look after me and my brother a couple of mornings a week and great-grandad always made me toast with it as second breakfast.

God, this is really bringing back memories of when I was tiny. It's actually making me want to cry a little as they're all gone now, even my mum and brother.

[quote kennelmaid]@AdaColeman what's a gas poker?[/quote]
A gas poker is a device to light an open fire.

It's like a gas ring on a cable, only instead of being ring shaped, it's poker shaped, and you light it and tuck it in to your fireplace and leave it there until the coal/logs have caught. Saves huge amount of faff, old newspapers and/or firelighters and tinder.

We had one in the house I grew up in - also had toasting fork, trivet and chestnut roaster (played 'chicken' with siblings about who could peel a newly roasted one first)

I never knew my grandparents my mother was a great fan of her electric frying pan. I've asked her as an adult what she saw in it and she doesn't have a clue. Very difficult to clean apparently.

Kept a mangle in the lean to and used it til her dying day. Much more efficient than spin.

Ooh, my parents have a gas poker.

Is a Ewbank a "hoddedededer"?

Yes my grandma had one of them, fond memories

We had a Kirby. I don't remember any other vacuum until after I left home. We always had the same washing machine too, and my mum's fridge lasted 40 years.

We left my grandparents in the uk to emigrate so I've no idea about their tech, but I grew up with a lot of the things on this thread.

We had the same Toshiba tv until I was a teen. We had a long stick we used to change the channel with!

On my mums twin tub (or twin tubs, there were several over the years, she didn't have an automatic till after I'd left home) she didn't drain out the washing part - the clothes went in, did their swishing around for however long, then were hauled out into the spin bit, spun once, then you hosed them down with clean water, spun, hosed again, final spin. Maybe you weren't supposed to do it that way, but it worked. The washing water had a strict heirachy of the order in which things went in - whites first, then coloureds, then dads working clothes.
In her kitchen, the twin tub shuffled along the kitchen to be next to the sink in use, but was a convenient place for stuff to live on top of during the day. When I was really little they had a separate wash house, but extended into it for a bigger kitchen. The outside loo was attached to the washhouse, and later got incorporated.
My great aunt had chamber pots but only I think for visiting children

A gas fridge.

A twin tub.

A tea dispenser on the wall, you held the teapot under it and pressed a button to dispense it into the pot. It was that colour of orange tat only existed in the 1970s.

OMG found one on ebay

www.ebay.co.uk/i/333519428534?chn=ps

A rotary manual hand whisk. They still make them but the old ones were heavy-duty and has been used by our family for 70 years.

So many twin tubs!

The first washing machine I remember in my parents' house was automatic, but somewhat primitive: it did not have a drawer for the powder, but a tiny "sink" on top, where the water gushed out of spouts, into the powder. I loved watching that. It was also not permanently plumbed in: hoses were attached to the ordinary taps, with special attachments so you could still use them as taps. It also had a connection to the hot tap, so it didn't heat the water internally. The dirty water would then drain into the sink: this was once the colour of black tea when some curtains had been washed.

There were a few relics in a family house abroad where we sometimes stayed; which was surprising, as the relative who owned it was very wealthy, and always bought the best:

The only toilet was downstairs, and my dad remembers life before this. An enamel lidded chamber pot was in one of the bedrooms, and we children were told we could use it if we didn't want to go downstairs in the night. According to family legend, my dad (then a child) climbed a ladder to the window of his sister's bedroom (then a teenager). She appeared at the window with this chamber pot, threatening to throw the contents out, yelling "I mean it!!!!!!!". When asked many years later if she really would have done it, she swears that she would.

A "stepper bath": in the small bathroom, this bath was half-length and had a step inside it, which you sat on, rather than lying full-length. I've never seen one anywhere else.

A record player which was electric, but used valves, and had to warm up after being switched on.

Here's another washing machine one, from the same house: an electric tabletop washing machine. Yes, really! It was plastic, and you had to pour water and detergent in first, and run it for ten minutes; then drain the water, and repeat the process with clean water. The clothes would always come out sopping wet: spinning was not within its capabilities.

Not equipment as such, but does anyone remember holding a newspaper up before the newly-lit fire to encourage it not to go out?

@letsgomaths

So many twin tubs!

The first washing machine I remember in my parents' house was automatic, but somewhat primitive: it did not have a drawer for the powder, but a tiny "sink" on top, where the water gushed out of spouts, into the powder. I loved watching that. It was also not permanently plumbed in: hoses were attached to the ordinary taps, with special attachments so you could still use them as taps. It also had a connection to the hot tap, so it didn't heat the water internally. The dirty water would then drain into the sink: this was once the colour of black tea when some curtains had been washed.

That’s exactly right with the twin tub - the hoses you attached to the sink. I can picture ours really well.

eddiemairswife I still do it - it creates a draught up the chimney to encourage the fire. You have to move quickly when the paper starts scorching .....

Miss my grandmother's mincer - excellent for masses of things. My mother moved to Africa when she got married - kerosene stove, kerosene fridge, wood oven. When I had problems with a stove in winter I cooked for three weeks on top of a woodburner. And I used one of the hanging clothes dryers in the garage until recently when the pulleys snapped and am planning to get another.

@eddiemairswife

Not equipment as such, but does anyone remember holding a newspaper up before the newly-lit fire to encourage it not to go out?

Oh yes, that was always exciting! We later had a gas fire which got lit with a match, once I singed my hair and eyebrows when it lit with a sudden whoosh! Health and safety was a bit minimal

BTW this was as a 10 year old....totally unsupervised of course...

My mum had a twin tub until the late 80s. As even when I was 15 in 85 she would spend EVERY Friday evening doing it! So it was wheeled out from under the kitchen work top. She would stand there. Whites first in the hottest water. Then transfer it to the spinner with white plastic tongs. I think the rinsing and spinning must have happened in the second compartment... Not quite sure. I will ask her. As she then put the next coloured stuff in the same water. So much more EF I guess. Such hard work though. It did empty but at the end she had to do a drainy out trick with a washing up bowl?? Then she would be surrounded by wet washing! We had less clothes in those days and wore them more times but there still seemed to be piles!! Family of 4. She had one of those stringy pull out ceiling dryers. Is that a Sheila's Maid? She still has a Ewbank. She loves it!

I feel very OLD - I remember all these things around me when growing up. I think we even still have the glass washboard (not sure if those have been mentioned). They used to double as a musical instrument in skiffle times, I believe. We had a single tub washing machine with electric mangle attachment. My parents were bought it by my grandparents, very kindly, when they were young marrieds with babies. It was passed on to my brother and I when we moved out to live in a flat together in the early 1970s. When I got my first "modern" washing machine, it was so wonderful. Even now, I still hugely appreciate not having to fill a washing machine and drain it out afterwards as well as having integral spin drying (we used to have a separate spin drier).