oscillating desk fan
date: label: date made
content: ca 1920
label: date made
content: ca. 1920
name: label: maker
content: Robbins & Myers Co.
label: maker
content: Graybar Electric Company
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: One of the earliest of electric appliances, fans sold very well in an era before air conditioning. Floor fans, wall-mounted fans, ceiling fans and table-top or desk fans were all on the market in the 1890s. A wide variety of manufacturers introduced many different shapes and sizes including companies not typically associated with appliances today, like telegraph and telephone maker Western Electric. By 1920, around the time this fan was made, companies were rationalizing product lines and putting their names on products made by others. Despite the Graybar name on this fan, the actual manufacturer was motor-maker Robbins and Myers of Springfield, Ohio. Graybar, originally part of Western Electric, ceased making fans by 1910.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The construction of this fan helps to place its date of manufacture. The spot-welded steel safety cage came into widespread use in the early 1910s, as did the steel motor frame. Earlier cages typically used brass and motor frames were often heavy cast iron. This fan still has brass blades, though. While some fan makers switched to steel, aluminum and other materials in the early 1920s, Robbins and Myers continued to use brass during that decade.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: web subject
content: appliances
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Wanda Thomas Goodnow
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.333684
label: catalog number
content: 333684
label: accession number
content: 2006.0185
objectType: label: Object Name
content: electric fan
label: Object Name
content: Fan
label: Object Name
content: electric appliance
label: Other Terms
content: Fan; Appliances
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 20 1/4 in x 16 3/4 in x 10 1/2 in; 51.435 cm x 42.545 cm x 26.67 cm