Display One
​"Things around the Home"

Irons, coffee grinders, scales, toasters, pumps, crocks just to name a few.  Everyday items that were needed in the home.

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Pitcher Pump

For hundreds of years, pitcher pumps have allowed people to extract water from underground wells with relatively little effort (compared to hauling buckets from a stream), expense (compared to building aquaducts to divert melting ice from the mountains) and danger of contamination (compared to an open well with a rope-and-bucket dipping system). The pitcher pump system uses a series of special pistons to create a vacuum that allows the atmosphere's natural pressure to push water up through a pipe.
To operate a pitcher pump, the user must push the long handle up and down repeatedly. The handle connects to a special piston with a hole in the center and a metal flap attached with a hinge (Figure 1). When the handle is up, the piston is at its lowest position. When the handle is pulled down, the piston moves up toward its highest position.

Irons

Blacksmiths started forging simple flat irons in the late Middle Ages. Plain metal irons were heated by a fire or on a stove.  Earthenware and terracotta were also used, from the Middle East to France and the Netherlands.
Flat irons were also called sad irons or smoothing irons. Metal handles had to be gripped in a pad or thick rag. Some irons had cool wooden handles and in 1870 a detachable handle was patented in the US. This stayed cool while the metal bases were heated and the idea was widely imitated. The sad in sad iron (or sadiron) is an old word for solid, and in some contexts this name suggests something bigger and heavier than a flat iron. Goose or tailor's goose was another iron name, and this came from the goose-neck curve in some handles. In Scotland people spoke of gusing (goosing) irons.
You'd need at least two irons on the go together for an effective system: one in use, and one re-heating. Large households with servants had a special ironing-stove for this purpose. Some were fitted with slots for several irons, and a water-jug on top.

Crocks

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