WASHING MACHINE. METAL, ETC. SKRAT, MODEL P-7, LEONARD RYZNAR, CIRCA 1945.

Washing machine. Metal, etc. SKRAT, model P-7, Leonard Ryznar, circa 1945. Metal washing machine with an electric motor which would drive a circular container (that moves the clothes, a “drum”), with a water intake at the bottom to the right and with several valves and levers, as well as four legs with a circular base to better rest on the ground and prevent, as far as possible, the machine from moving when it was in operation. Leonard Ryznar (or Rýznar) was the founder of the Skrat company, which made several models similar to the present one, very popular among those who could afford them in certain areas of Europe in the 20th century. As indicated on the device itself, it is the P-7 model, produced around 1945. Towards the beginning of the 19th century, several “machines” were developed for washing clothes, consisting of a wooden box in which the clothes were placed and a manually operated system that moved them. Another variant were those that had a drum in which the clothes were pressed to wring them out. Electric washing machines were not created until the beginning of the 20th century (in 1904 these appliances were already advertised in the United States; apparently, the first in Europe appeared somewhat later), becoming a mass appliance from the late 1940s to the beginning of the the 1950s, and in Western Europe developed into an everyday appliance from around 1960.

· Size: 96x64x82 cms.