That’s not unique to Walmart; Sears was doing it back in 1962.
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That sounds like the ceramic kettles that were standard in every home when I grew up. If you let it boil dry, the element broke, but that happened often enough that everyone had a spare element in the cupboard.
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The big Clive babycutor has a plastic stick with two metal plates either side, leading directly to the power. At least the kettle has less risk of accidental contact with the electrodes.
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I wonder how pervasive that was back then. My family still has a Sears window fan from that era, older than I am, and it will probably outlive me. Just give it a couple of drops of oil now and then and it just keeps on going. The knobs are the only plastic to be found.
On the other hand, the Sears of that era often had multiple grades of product, and that fan was likely a top-of-the-line one. These days, you’d have to go to an industrial supply house to find an equivalent product.
I was visiting a friend’s restaurant the other day, and the food was amazing. She took me on a tour of the place and I discovered that they were in the middle of a kitchen remodel and we’re using 4 of these in the kitchen instead. I was even more impressed at the food quality after that.
IIRC, they weren’t just too cheap to buy real furniture, they were too cheap to buy any furniture.
The plastic deck chairs were sample products left behind by other vendors.
I have a 1940 Robbins & Myers, it is much nicer than any fan you can buy today. Hand-tied coils, cut steel gears, thick bronze bearings… when I found it, the blades and cage were smashed, apparently it had fallen from a height. I planished out the blades with hammer and anvil (not recommended) and replaced the rotted head and feed wires with cloth-covered wire from Sundial Wire (highly recommended) and now it would look like new if my spouse would only let me repaint it. I expect that with proper maintenance (that drop of oil you mentioned, and rewiring every 50 years or so) it will last for hundreds of years.
Today you can get really good, really powerful fans if you are willing to pay $200 or more. But they still won’t last a hundred years, because they have no lubrication ports.
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