We had a chance to check out some antique shops that were new to us, and although I didn't see a single steam-related item, I did manage to find this old iron. It's not that I collect old irons, but for the last fifty years or so, I have collected any electrical device that has this original Edison plug still attached.
These plugs were normally cut off and replaced with a two-prong plug. Once people began to have two-pronged electrical outlets in their homes, these earliest electrical devices came with the Edison screw type plug because the only electricity at the time was afforded by removing the light bulb from the kitchen ceiling and screwing that device into the light socket. This hefty iron, according to the brass tag, draws 900 watts, which is way more than any light bulb of its time. But the old knob and tube wiring of the day probably handled it just fine. Devices with the original Edison plug are extremely hard to find, and after almost fifty years of collecting them, I probably only have two dozen of these items. My understanding is that most of these appliances would date from the late 1890's to the late 1910's.
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