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But just as significantly, washers of yesterday were, in a word, dangerous.
Lee tells the story of a visitor to his museum. As he explained the danger of the old washers, a woman in the group leaned over and pointed to a 2-inch scar on the top of her head. When she was a young girl, she said, she'd been helping her mother with the laundry when one of her braids got caught in the wringer, effectively scalping her.
"They're pieces of machinery," Lee stresses. "They require oil. They have open gears. They're terrifically dangerous. There were all kinds of fingers lost in washer accidents."
The mechanics, too, differed.
Some had what can best be described as a "milk stool" agitator under the top lid. Early agitators were designed to move the water through the clothes, rather than the clothes through the water. Others had the same arrangement, but on the bottom of the tub.
Some washers were on rockers; others had oscillating tubs. There were suction washers, drum-type washers, belt-driven washers, tumble washers, propeller-agitators, extractors, spinners, and "clam shell wringer" washers which worked in conjunction with an air compressor.
Showing its versatility, the latter model was also used in at least one instance to extract juice from wine grapes. A handful of manufacturers attempted to convert the washer into a multi-function home appliance. Select models were enhanced with optional attachments: butter churns, fruit and vegetable canners, meat grinders.
"I never cease to be amazed by what they made," Lee says.
Early marketers were keenly aware of the toil of washday. Ads for the Crystal Electric Washer and Wringer pledged "to lighten the burden of womankind." The Eden washer was billed as "A monument to women's freedom." Imprinted on the wringer of another washer -manufactured by the company that would become the Whirlpool Corporation - are the words "Save Women's Lives."