PillBlogs: Washing machines and air raid sirens
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Pillboxopedia is a jargon-busting tool of terms relating to UK anti-invasion defences of World War Two.
Pillbox
Generic term for a hardened field defensive structure usually constructed from concrete and/or masonry. Pillboxes were built in numerous types and variants depending on location and role.
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Posted: 16 February 2006 at 22:52
I spent this afternoon waiting around at home for a washing machine engineer to turn up; but I can relate even this most mundane of non-events to the subjects covered by this website! 
Although washing machines and air raid sirens may not appear to be related at first glance, they do have something in common - they both employ a rotating perforated drum. That of the Type 447 is shown at right.
A document of June 1945 I found in HO 186/2716 states that Gent (a manufacturer of air raid sirens) "are working on the possibility of converting sirens into washing machines."
It would seem that this noble attempt at recycling ultimately failed; perhaps a four-horsepower washing machine audible from five miles away was deemed too loud. (A case of doing your dirty washing in public???) Had it succeeded, then a legitimate advertising slogan for the product could have been: "Only a siren can get your whites as clean as a whistle!"
I draw the line at puns relating to "hanging out the washing on the Siegfried Line..."
- Pete
Response posted by < John Locke > on 02 March 2006 at 13:41
Umm, @ a few Kw of juice to run such sirens, I would imagine that the washing machine drums would centrifugically pummel the clothing fibres to a pulp in minutes & produce some extremely interesting results, if cleaned laundry in a few minutes, than an entire 90 min cycle.
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Hibbs, Peter PillBlogs: Washing machines and air raid sirens (2010) Available at: http://www.pillbox.org.uk/pillblogs/detail.asp?ID=24 Accessed: 30 July 2010
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