The B's and the C's

The top iron is a Steam-O-Matic B-200. (It appears on the cover of my book, Streamlined Irons , which can be seen at www.streamlinedirons.com). It is a rare version of the B-200, in that it does NOT have a black painted handle. The iron below the B-200 is the B-300: notice the difference in the way the front of the handle interfaces with the body. Also, there are no polished streamlines on the 300. (If you click on the photos, you'll get a larger version and be able to see the details.) The B-300 is an extremely common iron, which came out after the (much less common) B-200.

The iron below is a C-100 and, so far, it is unique. Its mysterious aspect is that the interface of the front of the handle with the body is from a B-300 and the body itself is from a B-200. If you have a C-100, I'd like to know about it.

Carpenters

The signature iron for this blog is a Carpenter tailors' iron: see right-hand column. This is a photo of the same iron with a polisher iron, also made by Carpenter Electric Heating of St. Paul, MN. I've owned both of these very irons: now they are in other collections. Until recently there were only three Carpenter irons known; these two and a laundry iron. But now another tailors' iron has appeared, (albeit it without its ID tag and with all of its finish sandblasted off), and another laundry iron, also missing the ID tag. If you have an iron made by Carpenter, I'd like to know about it.

Something else!

Since I post so erratically to this "blog," here's something else. I have a bit of interest in wire trivets and hand painted flat irons. This is a photo of two of the former, one of the latter. One of the trivets is actually a cake cooler. Yes, the round one. The other trivet is a Star of David, which I like because I'm Jewish. The flatiron is not yet Jewish. By the way, if you click on this or any photo you'll get a larger version of it.

Common GE, With Not Common Cord

This GE iron, Cat. No. 36815 (circa 1906) is not rare, though there is a more common version where the handle supports are anchored at the front and rear of the iron vs. the single center-point anchor seen on this version. What is rare about this iron? It has survived with (what is presumed to be) its original cord. A ceramic light bulb socket is typical for this era; a ceramic, detachable, two prong plug is not.

An Electric Potts Style Iron!

John D. Theisz, of Newport, Kentucky, was awarded patent #671,509 on April 9, 1901 for an "electrically-heated sad-iron" which in the patent drawings is a Potts style iron with an electric heating element inside: the iron above is NOT that iron.

This iron, marked "Salamander", which is barely legible in the lower photograph, is an oddity, indeed the only electric Potts style iron known. Nothing is yet known about where or when it was made.

American Electrical Heater

American Electrical Heater (AEH-D) of Detroit, Michigan was begun by Ben Scranton in the 1890's. Soon after 1900 it merged with another early manufacturer of electric irons, also in Detroit, United Electric Heating, founded by Frank Kuhn. AEH-D went on to be one of the most successful producers of electrically heated appliances of the prewar era, especially in irons. This tailors iron is the earliest example known from AEH-D, marked with a patent date of March 9, 1897.

So far I have been unable to find this patent in Google Patents, which means a trip to a patent repository in analog form will be necessary to obtain a copy. (Google Patents is plagued by scanning errors, making it impossible to successfully search for some patents.)

Wanted!!

I would like to acquire one of these. If you have one, or know the whereabouts of one, contact us at electricirons@mac.com. It was sold by the Eaton department stores in Canada and says "Berkley" on it.