Were electric fans a big hit with consumers from the jump?

[road_lobo]

@Jackmannii

I find it hard to imagine how people survived much of the year in the Houston area (and virtually all of Texas during the summer) in the days before A/C, even with electric fans.

As has been mentioned, architecture can make a big difference, where people had the knowledge and money to build thoughtfully.

There is also the practice of the siesta.

Siesta

[nightshadea]

thank god swamp coolers are finally dying out they’re slightly more useful than fans …next house I’m in will have full ac (ie the big cooler out back going in the house that all the houses built after the Jurassic have … )

[Kimstu]

Don’t forget that early electric fans were pretty noisy, so there were some tradeoffs in terms of consumer comfort. Also, seconding the remarks of earlier posters, for the women who were actually doing most of the indoor work of a household, labor-saving appliances were prized much more than climate control. The big excitement about climate control seems to have been centered on central heating and later on air-conditioning, after labor-saving appliances were fairly ubiquitous.

From reading hundreds of novels from the late 19th c. and early 20th c., I can say that while several of them described the life-changing thrill of acquiring a sewing machine or a washing machine—and of course, electric lighting—I’ve never seen any fictional character get excited about getting an electric fan.

That said, they were nonetheless quite popular items. Here’s a 1907 article mentioning them:

Ever stop to reflect that most of the gimcracks and novelties of commerce are based on summer needs? It’s so. Winter is a time of staples—coal, flannels, coffee, oatmeal. But summer is the time of the electric fan, insecticide, new-fangled underwear and fancy cereal food.

[Daylate]

As far as hand-held fans are concerned, I remember growing up in the 1930’s and 40’s, and attending any public function. These were in small or smallish towns. And in the midwestern summer (hot-hot-hot), almost everyone would be fanning themselves. and almost always the fans would be advertising one of the local funeral parlors. Had it not been for these businesses, we would have probably all died from heat stroke.

[Nava]

@road_lobo

As has been mentioned, architecture can make a big difference, where people had the knowledge and money to build thoughtfully.

There is also the practice of the siesta.
Siesta - Wikipedia

Note that in Southern Europe there are locations where houses were already built one room atop another in pre-Roman times (archeologists in Rioja dixit). Tall houses, narrow streets; the ground floor was the “business” floor, kitchen there or on the next one, bedrooms above, and a flat terrace which could be used as a bedroom when the weather called for it. There’s people who still live in houses like that: lots of stairs, but that’s why they spend most of their time in the ground floor or the top. That doesn’t need much money, but it does need someone to have the idea and it involves sharing lots of walls with the neighbors: it’s also not a possible design if your “business” is too far from town to come and go every day.

The same places often have areas of solana and umbría: a solana is a place that’s not hit by the dominant wind and where any stray ray of sunlight will touch; an umbría, which may even be the opposite corner of the public square, is always in the shade and gets the slightest breeze.

[Voyager]

@Daylate

As far as hand-held fans are concerned, I remember growing up in the 1930’s and 40’s, and attending any public function. These were in small or smallish towns. And in the midwestern summer (hot-hot-hot), almost everyone would be fanning themselves. and almost always the fans would be advertising one of the local funeral parlors. Had it not been for these businesses, we would have probably all died from heat stroke.

Talk about self-defeating handouts.

I just remembered something else from my childhood - battery powered handheld electrical fans. Not very powerful and not very practical, since it was a pain to go around with the fan pointed at you in one hand, and if you decided to scratch with that hand …

[SlackerInc]

My mom still buys those from a catalog and uses them when she is out and about during warm weather.

@Kimstu

That said, they were nonetheless quite popular items. Here’s a 1907 article mentioning them:

Great find! Exactly the kind of thing I was thinking about.

[JohnGalt]

@Broomstick

Even early electric lights were brighter than candles and most lanterns. It was quite a dramatic difference. Also, electric lights, even with the issues around early wiring systems, were safer than open flame types of lighting, which meant fewer house fires.

Electric lights were especially welcome during long, dark, winter nights, and certainly were useful year round whereas electric fans were only used a few months out of the year in most places.

My mother married in 1946 and moved into the old farmhouse with one condition: they install electricity (actually two: and water). I once asked her about it, and she said the first night with the new electric lights on, they were horrified how dirty and sooty the walls and ceilings were from the kerosene lanterns they had been using. (The ceilings in some of the rooms still have the hooks where you could hang a lantern.) There’s a weekly “Amish Cook” column in the paper, and they spend an entire day in the spring washing walls and ceilings to remove the soot.

I don’t recall any really old electric fans that would be from then, but they certainly got a refrigerator and stove and wringer washing machine as soon as possible. It’s likely they just didn’t know what a difference a fan could make in comfort levels, so they didn’t make the connection immediately.

[SlackerInc]

Good point.

I thought those hooks were for plants! :smack: