Sunday, August 30, 2026

Electric Dishwashers a Hundred Years Ago

From Bill Barlow's Budget in 1897.  I wouldn't have guess dishwashers even existed in any form at the time.

 A really surprising item on A Hundred Years Ago:

Electric Dishwashers a Hundred Years Ago

I had no idea whatsoever that electric dishwashers existed in 1926.  It really surprises me.

It's another example, however, on how domestic machinery was entering the home at this point in time, the impact of which was about to revolutionize economics and how people simply lived.

We've discussed this in the context of the introduction of domestic machinery into the home in the 40s and 50s.  We've also noted before that this process, which had started early in the 20th Century, was delayed by the Great Depression.  This is a good example of that.

I took a look at this topic, which I've never even considered before, and it appears that one American socialite, Josephine Cochrane, was instrumental in the invention of machine dishwashers and was working on it in the late 19th Century.  She went into commercial manufacturing of them in 1898.


Cochrane was a widow at the time, and she passed away in 1913 at age 74.  In the 1920s a new type of design was introduced by William Howard Livens, a British professional soldier of an inventive mind who is known for his military inventions related to chemical warfare and flame throwers.


His front loading dishwasher introduced the modern form of the device.  Introduced in 1924, he continued to work on it and by 1940 had introduced the drying element to the machine.  A man of independent means, he served in both World Wars and died in 1964 at the age of 74.

On the same day that this advertisement appeared, December 12, 1941, this was the headline in the same paper:

If Romeo hadn't bought his dishwasher by that time, he was waiting at least four more years to get one.

In 1926 Cochrane's company, which still existed, was sold to the Hobart Manufacturing Company.  Using the name KitchenAid, it introduced the first house specific dishwasher in 1949, reflecting a period during which the introduction of domestic machinery, much of it improved by the advances of technology during the Second World War, were rushing into households.  Still, dishwashers were still regarded as a luxury item well into the 1970s, and as a kid not only did we not have one, none of the people whose houses I'd visit as a child had them either.  They were regarded as really bougie 
Indeed, my parents never had a dishwasher, and it would never have occured to me to actually buy one myself.  However, the first house we lived in, that is rented, when we were first married had one, which was my introduction to them.  When we bought our house (we've only ever had the one), it had one, and when it broke, we bought a new one.  Everyone has one now.

Which gets back to the point I made in the Maytag entry noted below.  It's not like washing dishes ever seemed like a huge chore to me, but we were a small family.  I'm sure for the homes of my parents, which featured large families, they were, particularly when combined with all of the other domestic chores that had to be done in a less automated world.

Related threads:

Women in the Workplace: It was Maytag that took Rosie the Riveter out of the domestic arena, not World War Two

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Pavillion Community Church, Pavillion Wyoming.

Churches of the West: Pavillion Community Church, Pavillion Wyoming.: Every once and a while. . . well more frequently than that, I run across a church that's really hard to photograph. This is an example o...

Pavillion Community Church, Pavillion Wyoming.


Every once and a while. . . well more frequently than that, I run across a church that's really hard to photograph. This is an example of just that.


 This is the Pavillion Community Church in the small town of Pavillion.  It's a classic rural church in design, but the massive blue spruce in front of it pretty much hides the front view of it entirely.

This is a non denominational Christian church.  I don't know anything else about it.

Friday, August 30, 1946. Aircraft to Nationalist China.

The United States agreed to sell surplus military aircraft to the Chinese Nationalist, which brought to an end negotiations that were being conducted by Gen. George C. Marshall between the Chinese Communists and the Nationalist.

It's really doubtful those negotiations would have borne fruit anyhow.  They might have bought time.

At any rate, by the end of the year the US, under Marshall's influence, had suspended supplying the Nationalist in an effort to pressure them into negotiating with the Red Chinese.

The French created the German state of Rheinland-Pflaz.

The film The Killers was released.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 24, 1946. Portents and changes.

Monday, August 30, 1926. The end of Italian voting.

Italian municipal elections were abolished so that municipal officials could be appointed by the fascist state, something Der Fibber hasn't quite gotten around to here, yet.

A funeral Mass was held for Rudolph Valentino at Saint Malachy's Catholic Church in New York City.  The parish is famously associated with the theater district in New York.

The Soviet steamer Burevestnik sank in Kronstadt in a pier/ship collision accident, killing 65 passengers.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 28, 1926

Wednesday, August 30, 1911. Hat in the ring.

Francisco I. Madero was nominated for President of Mexico as a candidate for the Progressive Constitutionalist Party.  The party would exist only until 1913.

Marquis Saionji Kinmochi became prime minister of Japan.

Sir William Ramsay predicted that Britain's coal supplies would be exhausted by 2086, not anticipating that coal would fade from importance in spite of being near and dear to the hearts of reactionaries.

The Census Bureau announced that the center of population was located in the western part of Bloomington, Indiana, eight miles from the originally announced center in Brown County, Indiana.

Last edition:

Tuesday, August 29, 1911. Ishi.

Friday, August 30, 1901. Vacuum cleaner patented.

Hubert Cecil Booth patented the first motorized vacuum cleaner.


The first one was essentially an industrial device, not a domestic machine, but it pointed the way towards things to come.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 24, 1901. The Royal Navy, Ottoman Navy, and Kuwait and the heroic sacrifice of Clara Maas.

Wednesday, August 30, 1876. Murad V deposed.

Ottoman Emperor Murad V was deposed after a mere 93-day reign, which was derailed due to mental health issues.

Abdul Hamid II took power and promised to introduce a parliament.

On this, once again, I just saw the other day some dimwit use the "we're a republic, not a democracy" line in something.  People who spout that should have their citizenship revoked and be deported to Dumbassistan.  We're a democratic republic. We are a democracy.

Congressman James A. Garfield, took his family on a sightseeing trip in Philadelphia.

Last edition:

Monday, August 28, 1876. Creating Ft. Keogh.

The 2027 Legislature, super early edition. The make them stop edition.

Ugh, just when the first corn fed, cornfederate legislature was safely in the history books, the Management Council met.  Of course, the same dumb ideas that get rejected repeatedly are back up for reconsideration, at least in part.

I hear we want to do the election review again and redo the same bills that just died three weeks ago ... in exchange for 911 funding.

Tara Nethercott.

The corner crossing bill won't be back, which is too bad.

Vote the WFC out and send them back to pre 1964 Alabama where they'll be happy.

May 13, 2026

Woman Sued By House Candidate Reid Rasner Urges Ban On Frivolous Lawsuits

I was aware this legislation had been introduced.  Frankly, Anti SLAPP provisions are really tricky as they're based, basically, on pre judging a litigants intent.

June 10, 2026

Lawmakers revive proposal to remove Wyoming property taxes

The money has to come from somewhere.  Property taxes rise because in no small part new people come in and overpay in the local housing market, and otherwise inflate it.

A better idea would be to have an unrealized sales tax on the sale of real property from other states that

 is used by a person within five years of moving to Wyoming.

August 13, 2026

Lawmakers reject proposal for online court records, streamed hearings

Thank goodness. This idea was outright unworkable.

August 29, 2026

Things are going to be rough from now until the the beginning of the next legislative session as the members of the deposed Freedom Caucus be a general pain.

At Least Five Lawmakers Walk Out Of ‘Absurd’ Joint Committee Meeting

August 30, 2026

The WFC food fight at the legislature continues as Chip Neiman took to Facebook to pout over Senators walking out of the recent pointless joint meeting.

As Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives, I’m entrusted with the responsibility of appointing legislators to standing committees. It’s a charge I didn’t take lightly upon my election to the Speakership.

I’m proud of the members of the House Minerals and Appropriations Committees for finishing the job they took up for the interim pertaining to local government infrastructure funding and the Wyoming Business Council. 

Today, the Senate walked out on Wyoming cities, towns and counties. Conversely, the House committee members remained steadfast in order to deliver the strongest local government funding model seen in decades. This bill will fund local infrastructure and benefit every local jurisdiction and citizen.

The Legislature isn’t a place for turf warfare. 

I worry for the future of the Wyoming Legislature. I encourage those new members coming to Cheyenne, to remember who they serve; not a committee, a chamber or any particular lobbying outfit, they serve the people of Wyoming. See less

Neiman notes that he's Speaker of the House in the legislature, which is true, but he's on his way out and is a lame duck.  The complaint that the "Legislature isn't a place for turf warfare" is really rich given that the WFC acted like the first Vandals in Rome in Cheyenne.  If it's turf warfare, they started it.

We're going to see a lot more of this.  The WFC has been kicked to the curb, but like the the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French) in the Battle of Berlin, it's going to see that everything is destroyed that it can destroy before it goes.

One common theme we're now seeing in connection with the WFC losing is this one that appears in the comments to Nieman:

Me too! We are quickly becoming a blue state, just as Charlie Kirk predicted!😢

I've scene that more than once now.

People who make that comment are deluded.  I don't know about this person, but they're likely also carpetbaggers.  Wyoming is a conservative state, but it's not a Turning Point USA Southern Bible Belt state.  This is why traditionally there was no support for restricting abortion much here (which I do feel should be restricted, and indeed illegal) and nobody cared much whether somebody was a homosexual or not, which apparently is also no longer the case.  The local view, and it was expressed in the Democratic and Republican parties, wsa "I don't care what you do as long as you leave me alone".  The WFC didn't want to leave people alone.

As for Charlie Kirk and his predications, I'm increasingly in the "I don't care what  Charlie had to say" camp.  I don't mean to sound like a Kirk basher, but those politicos and their followers that are Kirk acolytes increasingly don't impress me.  Kirk was brought to UW by one of his collegiate admirers who went on to work for Hageman and get canned for following Francoist website, with the same fellow then managing Chuck Gray's campaign.  That's a good enough reason not to vote for Gray, although were are are plenty of other reasons not to do so.  Anyhow, Kirk never reflected a Wyoming point of view.

Page Updates for 2026.

 


New additions to They Were (or are) Catholic.  Bob Hope, Gregory Peck, J. D. Vance, Kathy Karpan, Chuck Gray, Megan Degenfelder, Edmond O'Brien.

New additions to They Were (or are) Orthodox:  Brig. Gen Norvell Coots.

Best Posts of the Week of August 23, 2026, as well as the Feral Week and Agrarian Week. "If", murders and deaths, war gamers smarter than the Pentagon, the race continues, the idiocy of agriculture with the GOP, the Horsemeat March, Real Christians, the US becomes outright moronic, the D-Day which wasn't.

If you can keep your head when all about you 

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

 

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

If, by Rudyard Kipling. 

The best posts of the week of August 23, 2026.

A week in which we recalled a celebrated murder:

Friday, August 23, 1901. The murder of Rev. Heese.


A noted the passing of a beloved cinematic lover:


We noted the idiocy of agriculturalist in supporting the Republican Party:


And we noted the brilliance of war gamers and the dimness of the Trump administration.


We concluded our post on the primary election results:


And we noted the declining mental status of a person whose never been admirable, but now is outright dangerous.


The deficit passed an unconscionable level.


The Horsemeat March commenced.

We revolted against being lumped in with Evangelicals as we are members of the original Church.

Ecclesia militans. On the use of the word "Christian".

We watched as the United States descended into outright absurdity.

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 9, 25th Amendment Watch, 23d Edition. The Canadian Harvard and Oxford doctor in economics vs. the Wharton playboy. The Trade War with Canada edition. First set of Additional labels.


Scott Bessent declared an economic D-Day which wasn't really one.


There were developments over the bar.



We looked the race:


The illegitimate occupant of the White House tried to change the name of a Great Lake.


The Freedom Caucus tried to throw its diminished weight around.


A survivor of genocide emerged, the last of his tribe.


Glenn Beck and Donald Trump came up with a way to satiate cattlemen so that the GOP can keep on screwing them.


Dolly Parton died and it somehow became a matter of official national observance.

The Feral Week:

A week noted by the ongoing story of Angi Bruce, late of the Game and Fish, data center controversies, and lost hikers and dogs.

The Agrarian Week:

It was a week which stood out for the idiocy of agriculture in politics.

And a lost dog (which was later found):

Extraordinary All-Out Search Launched North Of Casper For Runaway Livestock Guard Dog



Last edition:

Best posts of the week of August 16, 2026 and the Feral and Agrarian Weeks.

Saturday, August 29, 2026

Half Mast Idiocy

I was driving through northern Colorado yesterday and noticed that in a small town, Walden, a flag was at half mast.

I didn't think much of it.  I had been pretty busy down there on work and I assumed that somebody important in Colorado had died, or perhaps nationally and I'd missed it as I had been so busy.

Nope, Dolly Parton.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

As a mark of respect for the memory of Dolly Parton, I hereby order, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, September 1, 2026.  I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half‑staff for the same period at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fifty-first.

                             DONALD J. TRUMP

This has gotten completely stupid.

Now, I have nothing against Dolly Parton.  I don't like country music and I wasn't a fan, but I wasn't an enemy of Parton's, if there is such a thing, either.   She was certainly a well known figure in the culture.

But it's not as if she was some sort of important figure to the well being of the nation.  She was an entertainer.  Did they fly the flags half staff for Jimi Hendrix?  Given his iconic Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock, there certainly would have been a reason to do so.

In Wyoming it seems like flags are at half mast constantly.  There's the national orders put out by Presidents, some of which are due to tragedies, some due to well known figures dying.  Then there's the local ones, often when an obscure politician from some point in the distant past dies.  Half mast ought to be reserved for really important observations.

The death of entertainers isn't one of them.

The Agrarian's Lament: Trump Moves To Allow Ranchers And Farmers To Process Their Own Food

The Agrarian's Lament: Trump Moves To Allow Ranchers And Farmers To Proce...: Trump tries to backstep after a major screw up. Trump Moves To Allow Ranchers And Farmers To Process Their Own Food While this will aid beef...

Trump Moves To Allow Ranchers And Farmers To Process Their Own Food

Trump tries to backstep after a major screw up.

Trump Moves To Allow Ranchers And Farmers To Process Their Own Food

While this will aid beef producers, it doesn't address the existential problem of the packing industry monopoly.  Breaking that, and particularly breaking that on Distributist principals, would have a massive impact.  That won't be happening, however.  

Instead, this basically would allow producers to sell their own beef across state lines.  While some people will buy beef in that fashion, most people won't, and that doesn't do much at all for the cost of beef sold at restaurants and the like.

As noted, applying the Sherman Anti Trust Act to the meat packing industry would have a real impact.  A bigger one would be limiting corporate ownership to a single packing facility.

All of this will have no immediate impact on meat prices. The US cattle inventories, i.e.., the herd size, have not been this low since 1941.  The reasons for that are varied, by herd reduction due to drought caused by climate change is a major part of it.  In some ways, this is just a minor way of trying to repair the damage done by Trump allowing the importation of foreign beef, which has the added theater element of being introduced, supposedly, by Glenn Beck in an interview, something that just screams out the entire thing being something that is pitched towards farmer and rancher ignorance.

Small herd size is a problem, but it will take years to address.  By that time, given the very small herd size, we may very well be seeing a meat production climate that hasn't existed since the introduction of refrigerated rail cars in 1878.  The massive increase in the Western herd during the Civil War and the invention of the refrigerated rail car shifted the American diet from pork to beef.  Various factors have been making inroads on beef for years, and the price at the counter, which this will certainly not immediately address, is shifting it once again, and has been for many  years.

Whether this will serve as a salve on farmers and ranchers so they can justify voting for a party that has screwed them for years is yet to be seen.

Related thread:

The GOP's useful idiots in agriculture.

Tuesday, August 29, 1911. Ishi.

 


"Ishi", believed to be the last surviving member of the Yahi Tribe and the Yana group was found hiding in a corral near Oroville, California.  He was about 50 years old and would die, after being hired as a janitor at the Museum of Anthropology, in 1916.

A California tribe, the Yahi were completely eliminated in a series of genocidal massacres by soldiers and settlers during the 19th century.  

Ishi merely means "man".  His real name is unknown.

Mahbub Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VI,  richest prince of the Indian Empire, died at age 45.

Last edition:

Friday, August 25, 1911. The Genteel Tradition.