{"id":2451493,"date":"2019-11-24T00:24:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T07:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/how-to-clean-house-when-the-witches-run-away-with-the-brooms\/"},"modified":"2019-11-24T00:24:01","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T07:24:01","slug":"how-to-clean-house-when-the-witches-run-away-with-the-brooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/how-to-clean-house-when-the-witches-run-away-with-the-brooms\/","title":{"rendered":"How to clean house when the witches run away with the brooms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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General Electric manufactured the first electric toaster in the U.S., in 1908.<\/strong>
Library of Congress\/Courtesy pho<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Electricity lit up Aspen\u2019s streets and drove its mining equipment during the 1890s. Later, through the first decade of the 1900s, electricity eased the burden of chores at home. The Aspen Times ran a series of articles that touted the new inventions.<\/p>\n

One of the first articles reported on the electric toaster, which came out in 1908. \u201cIt only takes three minutes to prepare two nice browned slices from the time the current is turned on.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1909 the title of an article hinted at a range of electrical comforts, \u201cA house without a broom or a match and without coal and gas.\u201d The story claimed that electrical power would take care of all the cooking. \u201cIt has already proven itself cleaner, quicker and more effective than any other kind of heat for culinary work.\u201d With a small motor, such as one on a mixer stand, electricity would energize \u201ccoffee grinding, meat and food chopping, egg beating, cream whipping, cake mixing, butter churning, grating, ice chopping, cream freezing, noodle cutting and vegetable paring.\u201d<\/p>\n

During that era, men held most door-to-door sales jobs. But in 1909 the New York Vacuum Cleaner Agency recruited women to sell vacuum cleaners in Aspen. Blakemore\u2019s, a local store, sold and rented vacuum cleaners.<\/p>\n

In 1911 some people thought of electricity as a magical substance to be feared. An explanation in The Aspen Times, which described the relationship of hydroelectric power and cooking, fell on the muddled side of clarity. \u201cIt is not the water, exactly, that cooked the cereal, boiled the steak or made the toast \u2014 it is the water power converted into electricity and the electricity changed into the heat which actually did the culinary trick.\u201d Aspen\u2019s residents may have developed a more intuitive understanding of that relationship. In plain view, the town\u2019s hydroelectric plant had produced electricity for nearly two decades.<\/p>\n

That same year another column in the series featured the electric flatiron. \u201cThousands of housewives\u201d loved the iron, the story reported, because it \u201cgets hot upon the instant and stays hot until the ironing is done.\u201d Before electricity, people heated heavy irons on the wood stove. The heat did not last long enough to press many clothes. People would place the cool iron back on the stove and take care of other chores while it reheated.<\/p>\n

By the early 1920s electricity reigned. A Tomkins Hardware ad featured a range of electrical appliances. An electric sewing machine cost $50 ($543 in 2019 dollars). For about double that you could buy \u201cthe one\u2013minute washing machine.\u201d More affordable items, but still expensive compared to today\u2019s imports from China, included an electric coffee percolator for $10 ($108), and toasters and irons for $5 ($54).<\/p>\n

December\u2019s Tomkins ad listed one more item that demonstrated the invasion of electricity into cultural life: Christmas tree lights. Edward Johnson, who worked for Thomas Edison, had created the first string for his own home in 1892. Around 1900, retail stores began to use electrical lights for Christmas displays, but they remained too expensive for most families.<\/p>\n

Within a generation, costs had come down and colorful electric bulbs had replaced traditional candles on the tree. How long would it be until the long dark nights of Aspen\u2019s winter twinkled with fantastic strings of outdoor flashing lights?<\/p>\n

Tim Willoughby\u2019s family story parallels Aspen\u2019s. He began sharing folklore while teaching Aspen Country Day School and Colorado Mountain College. Now a tourist in his native town, he views it with historical perspective. Reach him at redmtn2@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

General Electric manufactured the first electric toaster in the U.S., in 1908.Library of Congress\/Courtesy pho Electricity lit up Aspen\u2019s streets and drove its mining equipment during the 1890s. Later, through the first decade of the 1900s, electricity eased the burden of chores at home. The Aspen Times ran a series of articles that touted the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2451493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 05:06:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2451493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}