'Thor' clothes dryer

This Thor clothes dryer, manufactured in Bristol, was purchased in New Zealand in the 1950s and used for many decades. The number and range of electric appliances available in New Zealand grew rapidly post-war, and like the Thor dryer, many of these appliances were advertised as ‘electric servants’ that would significantly decrease the burden of domestic work.

The number and range of electric appliances available in New Zealand grew steadily from the 1930s and increased rapidly in the 1950s. The census of 1956 indicated that more than half of New Zealand homes had washing-machines, refrigerators and electric ovens, although large-scale investment in electric appliances was not really the norm until the 1960s.

Appliances such as washing machines, irons and dryers were advertised as labour savers that would free women from the burdens of domestic work, and while they did certainly make housework less strenuous, they did not usually save time. New norms for household work, such as more elaborate meals and more frequently-cleaned interiors, meant that although the work changed it did not necessarily decrease.

J. Ross Moore of North Dakota is credited with inventing the electric clothes dryer in the 1930s, and his design was manufactured by Hamilton Manufacturing from 1938. This clothes dryer was produced by Parnell (Yate) of Bristol, which was originally an aircraft manufacturing company but began to specialise in household appliances after the Second World War. In 1955 Parnell (Yate) acquired Thor Appliances Ltd of Chicago, one of the most recognisable brands in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, and in the same year they manufactured their first clothes dryer. Parnell (Yate) seems to have sold this Auto-Dry model under both the Parnell and Thor brand names.

The Thor Auto Dry was distributed in New Zealand by A.M. Satterthwaite & Co. Ltd and sold by dealers all over the country. It was advertised as ‘the clothes dryer that brings the sun inside’ – the dryer of choice for ‘any sensible woman’ who wanted to dry her clothes easily, effectively and safely (see Advertisements, Press, 27 August 1957, 17). However efficient, at the time it was purchased this would have been something of a luxury item, as clothes dryers were rare in New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s and did not become common until the 1980s.

References:

• Acton, Johnny, Tania Adams, and Matt Packer. 2006. Origin of Everyday Things. London: Think Publishing.
• Hulbert, Paul. 2017. ‘Warplanes to Washing Machines.’ Supplement to the Histelec News. Western Power Electricity Historical Society.
• Labrum, Bronwyn. 2015. Real Modern: Everyday New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s. Wellington: Te Papa Press.
• O’Donnell, Jean-Marie. 1992. ‘“Electric Servants” and the Science of Housework.’ In Women in History 2, edited by Barbara Brookes, Charlotte Macdonald and Margaret Tennant. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books.
• --- n.d. Parnall’s Photo Gallery. Yate Heritage Centre.
• --- 2021. ‘Parnell (Yate)'. Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History.