English: Humphrey Water Heater and Syracuse 'Easy' Vaccuum-cup Washer, Georgia Museum of Agriculture, Tifton, Tift County, Georgia

The 'tankless' water heater of the 1900s. Copper tubing on the inside of this contraption is quickly heated via the gas burner, and water piped in heats almost instantly as it passes through. Made in Kalamazoo, Michigan. 1901-1920 were busy years for the company. Alfred Humphrey opened General Gas Light Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan, marketing new, inverted arc gaslights. The company opened offices in San Francisco, New York, Havana, London and Bremen. Soon, more than a million Humphrey arc lit homes, stores, factories and city streets. Humphrey also invented Radiantfire, a clean and odorless heating unit for fireplaces.

The manufacturer who made the washing machine was originally formed in 1877 as Dodge & Zuill. The name Syracuse Washing Machine Corporation was used from 1919-1932, after which the business became the Easy Washing Machine Corporation.

This washer/wringer combo was originally patented in 1912. It was the basis of the later standard twin-tub washing machine, and at the time represented a major advance in washing-machine design. The Syracuse 'Easy' featured vacuum-cup technology, which helped force soapy water through clothes. The early 1900s version of those machines featured the beautiful copper tub observed here. Later on that was replaced with white porcelain, believed to be a more hygienic option. The very name of this washing machine reinforced the alluring, but not entirely true, promise from advertisers that electrical appliances would be labor-saving. Although it offered some advantages, unlike modern washing machines, this machine was not automatic and still required much manual handling of the washing.