By 1900, small motors were sold for use with the hand cranks on washing machines (Cowan, 1983, p. 93). A November 1906 article showed a photo (see above) of a belt running from an electric motor to a washing machine (Hillman, 1906, p. 34). Several electric washing machine patents were applied for from 1906 to 1908 and issued from 1907 to 1914 in the U.S. The 1900 Company (now Whirlpool) may have been the first to mass produce the electric washing machine by about December 1907, and Thor was also manufacturing washers ca. 1907 (Maxwell, 2009). A December 1907 article showed a lady reading a newspaper while her electric washing machine worked—her machine had a wash tub with an attached wringer (Flower, 1907, p. 593). The first picture below (date unknown) shows an ad for the 1900 Company's Cataract electric washer with a similar theme--the housewife sitting next to the machine looking relaxed.
Early electric washing machines were not automatic and did not spin clothing to remove excess water. The machine did the scrubbing, but the operator had to fill and empty the tub and wring and haul the wet wash (Cowan, 1983, p. 151). Machines were developed to provide electric power to operate the wringers. The second photo below shows a ca. 1911 machine with an electrically powered wringer. Even with electric power, a woman still needed to insert clothes into the wringer. Wringers were hard on buttons and fasteners, as well as on hair, hands, and fingers, but the machines eliminated some hauling and wringing by hand (Cowan, 1983, p. 174). Washing with an electric washer at the beginning of the twentieth century meant (1) putting wash in tubs to soak overnight, (2) lifting wet clothes into the electric washer, (3) inserting a plug, and (4) turning on the electricity. Then, (5) the washer cleaned the clothes, and (6) the operator ran the clothes through an electrically-powered wringer. After clothes were dried on a clothes line, (7) the housewife could attach an electric iron to its wire to do the ironing without having to use an iron heated on a stove or fire. These early machines did not have timers, so the user had to monitor the machines to turn off the washer (Flower, 1907, p. 598).
Electric-powered washing machines required electricity and water. At the end of nineteenth century, running water was standard in urban households, although the poor would have likely had a water tap in a courtyard or water closet at the end of a hall. In rural areas, some had a hand-powered pump in the kitchen, but many still carried water in from outdoors. By the end of the 1920s, hot and cold running water in kitchens and a bathroom was standard in urban areas and towns for the middle class. Some rural families and the urban poor did not get indoor plumbing until the 1930s and even after World War II (Cowan, 1983, p. 86-87).
By the mid-1930s, most residences in large cities had standard electric and/or gas utilities, though coverage in small towns and rural areas varied. In 1934, 83% of all urban and rural non-farm residences in Tennessee were electrified (Cowan, 1983, p. 173). In 1935, the Federal Real Property Inventory found that 98% of homes in Cleveland had electric lights, 96% had plumbing with a toilet, 89% had hot and cold running water, and 95% cooked with gas or electricity (Strasser, 1982, p. 264). In contrast, rural and African American homes lacked amenities and appliances. A Farm Housing Survey in 1934 found only 17% of farmhouses in Ohio had electricity. In Tennessee, only 4% of 200 tenant farmer households could afford electricity, and none of them had running water in 1934. People were still using washboards in the 1940s. In 1940, one-third of Americans still used buckets to carry in water. As shown in the third photo below, old wooden washers were still being attached to an electric motor as of 1940 (note the washboard on the wall in the rear of the photo). By 1941, only 52% of U.S. families owned or had interior access to an electric washing machine—almost half of families were still hand rubbing or hand cranking laundry or using commercial services (Cowan, 1983, pp. 173, 195).