
Jim
This was true even ten years later. I have a 1950 Wards catalog with a large selection of battery operated (wooden) cabinet radios, wood and Sterno kitchen ranges, ice boxes that look like refrigerators; as well as "convertible" gasoline powered washing machines bearing the disclaimer, "for areas where electricity is not yet available." It also lists one "wind-up" phonograph model, a suitcase portable virtually identical to this one:estott wrote:Sears was still selling plenty of kerosene lamps and treadle sewing machines in 1939- it took quite a while for electricity to reach the rural communities.
Ortho_Fan wrote:
This was true even ten years later. I have a 1950 Wards catalog with a large selection of battery operated (wooden) cabinet radios, wood and Sterno kitchen ranges, ice boxes that look like refrigerators; as well as "convertible" gasoline powered washing machines bearing the disclaimer, "for areas where electricity is not yet available." It also lists one "wind-up" phonograph model, a suitcase portable virtually identical to this one:
>>Edited to host photo on this forum<<