Alva J. Fisher

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Alva John Fisher (* 1862 , † 1947 ) was an American engineer.

Fisher was an engineer in Chicago and was granted a U.S. patent on August 9, 1910 (No. 966,677, filed May 27, 1909) for a washing machine with a small electric motor and reversing gear. This gear moves forward and backward with the same force, which prevents the laundry from clumping.

Washing machines under that system were under the name at least since 1908 Thor by the company Hurley Machine Co. of Chicago markets. In addition to the “1900” Washer Company from Binghamton ( New York ), Hurley was one of the first commercial manufacturers of electrically powered washing machines. Fischer also received patents in Great Britain and Austria .

Alva J. Fisher is often referred to as the "inventor" of the electric washing machine. But he made no such claims in his patents; there are also older patents showing washing machines with electric drive (also without making this a central claim). With the general availability of electricity, the use of electric motors to drive mechanical washing machines (and other household appliances) at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was so obvious that the real inventor must remain unknown.

literature

  • Lee Maxwell: Who Invented the Electric Washing Machine? An Example of how Patents are Misused by Historians. 2009 ( online ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ US966677 on patents.google.com
  2. ↑ Lee Maxwell: Who Invented the Electric Washing Machine? P. 9 f.
  3. ↑ a b c Lee Maxwell: Who Invented the Electric Washing Machine? P. 5 f.
  4. ↑ Lee Maxwell: Who Invented the Electric Washing Machine? P. 3 f.
  5. ↑ Lee Maxwell: Who Invented the Electric Washing Machine? P. 2 and 7.
personal data
SURNAME Fisher, Alva J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fischer, Alva John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American inventor
DATE OF BIRTH 1862
DATE OF DEATH 1947