Gadgets for the Home (1930s)

In his 1986 essay titled , “ The Home of Tomorrow , 1927 - 1945 , ” Brian Horrigan describes the shift of stress to gismo inside the “ firm of tomorrow , ” rather than the homes themselves . The essay can be found in the bookImagining Tomorrow : History , Technology , and the American Future . An excerption appears below .

Although , like the public at large , American corporations finally refuse to underwrite a future full of modernist mansions or mass - acquire homes , they were attracted by a shinier side of the Home of Tomorrow coin : the household as a wonderland of gadgets . It is not surprising that the company that associated themselves most readily with the Home of Tomorrow were the major manufacturers of electrical appliances . General Electric parade a “ House of Magic ” at most of the major fairs of the 1930s . Alleged to “ walk and talk , ” the sign of the zodiac was not really a separate social structure but a gimmicky update on the department computer memory “ demo ” rest home , a form of stage coiffe on which glamorous women were cast as housewives , launch the household machinery and ca-ca a sales agreement pitch . Westinghouse , not to be outdone , build an intact “ Home of Tomorrow ” in 1934 in Mansfield , Ohio . It was intend as a lived - in laboratory in which the company ’s technologist and their families would temporarily reside to test the equipment . This theater , a tour de force of household electrification , was design to draw in attention , which it did quite effectively . Designed by architect Dwight James Baum , the house was a conventional wood - physique and stucco body structure , only more or less leftover in stylus – a sort of Regency - Cubist affair , employing near none of the already notoriously “ futurist ” mod vocabulary . Indeed , computer architecture was quite beside the point , according to the Westinghouse engineer responsible for the sign . “ A new professing of ‘ house engineers , ' ” maintained Victor G. Vaughan , “ will before long engross all architectural function except those of a purely esthetic nature . ” The railroad engineer had a field of operation day with the Westinghouse epitome , providing a connected galvanising load adequate to that of 30 ordinary houses , “ quick to do the workplace of 864 servant with the flip of a switch . ” Some of the features of the house were air conditioning , an electrical garage - threshold unfastener , reflex sliding doors , an galvanic wash , 21 separate kitchen appliances , burglar alarms , 140 electrical outlets , and 320 twinkle . All this was uncommitted , or so it was claim for around $ 12,000 . Westinghouse accommodate that the toll would probably range the house beyond the means of most families in the future tense , thus further removing this salient practice session from the democratic empty talk of the prefabricators .

See also : Monsanto House of the Future ( 1957 - 1967)Computersville is almost here ( 1970)Closer Than We Think ! Robot Housemaid ( 1959)Maid Without Tears ( 1978)Living Room of the Future ( 1979)The time to come of Real Estate ( 1953)Startling Changes in Housing in Year 2000 ( Chicago Tribune , 1961 )

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