Signal window fan

[Manalto]

Yesterday, I picked up this window fan from a (mercifully) nearby Craigslist seller.



It's a Signal DWR-162 and it's a beast, weighing in at around 30 lbs. I found an advertisement for it in the June 7, 1954 issue of Life magazine, where its price was listed at $63.36. ($602.17 in 2019 USD) If that seems like a lot of money for a fan, window air conditioners at the time retailed for about $230, over $2,000 today, adjusted for inflation. (The DWR-162 seems to be attempting a resemblance to an air conditioner with its 33 heavy steel slats - for some "budget prestige.")

I was unable to lift the image from the online copy of Life (it shows a woman asleep, viewed through a window screen) but here is the text of the ad:

"Enjoy screen-porch coolness in any room
Signal window fans - sleep cool - live refreshed, all summer long. Flip a switch and let this Signal "Room Cooler" take daytime heat out - bring cool night air in. Electronically reversible... fits any window... nothing to install. Set in place... plug in and zip, you're cool and relaxed."

The unit was so grubby that I couldn't tell that the blades were aluminum and the motor was white.



Cleaned up and oiled, it runs silently and looks a little better but it is, after all, 66 years old so it definitely shows signs of use. Its powerful motor and 16" blades are effective in moving air.



An even bigger beast, the DWR-202, with 20" blades sold in '54 for $77.99 ($741.22 today).

[Willa]

That looks like a real workhorse !

A long time I had an antique table fan someone had given me, that needed some work. I stumbled on an antique/vintage fan collectors forum - where the participants were SERIOUS. The repairs were over my head so I passed the fan onto someone more competent. I cannot recall what the forum was called - but the members there really, really knew their stuff.

[Manalto]

That's the Antique Fan Collectors Association AFCA, (fancollectors.org). They have a good catalog of images of antique (before 1950) and vintage (after 1950) fans. As an outsider, you can post questions and photos; members are gracious about responding. There is a fee for full membership. Although I prefer antique and vintage fans for their aesthetics and build quality, I only want them to use. I'm not a collector.

When I got the Signal, two other reversible window fans came with it (total $20). One was a Bradford (WT Grant Company) and one an Air King. These have conventional, closely spaced wire cages on the indoor face (it was assumed you'd have screen on the outside). Their motors are large and powerful, although not as beefy as the Signal. They're about 10 years newer and much lighter, of course. The more I think about it, the weirder it seems that 20 lbs. of steel went into the cage of the Signal.

[Willa]

Wow - it sounds like you really made out on the vintage window fan front !

The late 50's into the early 60's seems to be the last period of mass manufacturing when things were really built - before the notion of planned obsolescence got its fangs in.

[Manalto]

Wow - it sounds like you really made out on the vintage window fan front!

These fans are, to borrow from Ambrose Bierce, imperfectly beautiful. They are, nevertheless, a good deal at $20. I'm not as intolerant of heat and humidity as some but one thing is crucial: the air has to be kept moving. These fans will serve me well on the second floor, removing the heat that will have accumulated during the day.

[Gothichome]

James combined with the fans you bought last summer, if you turned them all on to exhaust your home you might be in danger of imploding your home.

[Manalto]

James combined with the fans you bought last summer, if you turned them all on to exhaust your home you might be in danger of imploding your home.

https://gfycat.com/sorereflectingcoelacanth

[phil]

I wonder if there was a link to the signal oil company?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtW4KV1Nmrc

the tone of the add sort of matches They had a lot of corny old radio ads too.

I bought a sunbeam fan.. what a POS ! its light and plastic and the cheap made in china fan isnt' balanced at all. right out of the box I could see it twisting and shivering as if it is ready to have a meltdown.. I wanted to march it straight back to wally world to get my 30 bucks back but it was hot, so I still have it.

some of thos old fans are incredibly powerful. I have one that is I guess from the 50's or so. Its nicely made and I think it's capable of circumcising fingers.

funny there is a fan club for fans there is a vacuum cleaner club too. If you really want to roll with a cool bunch I hear that's the place to be. they have conventions and competitions to suck the most dirt from the test rug. Prizes,, They sound like a real wild bunch The fan club guys probably think they suck, you can imagine what would hit the fan if the two clubs ever met up.

[Manalto]

A gathering of either of those groups would be fun for shooting the breeze, I guess.

I wonder if there was a link to the signal oil company?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtW4KV1Nmrc

the tone of the ad sort of matches They had a lot of corny old radio ads too.

This is a little bit of history on the company from radiomuseum.org. (You may know them.) It was originally the Menominee Company.

https://www.radiomuseum.org/dsp_herstel ... ny_id=9120

[1918ColonialRevival]

The late 50's into the early 60's seems to be the last period of mass manufacturing when things were really built - before the notion of planned obsolescence got its fangs in.

It was a period of slow decline that started in the late '50s with cheap "dimestore" small appliances that were imported from Japan. It spread to radios, record players, and tvs during the '60s and '70s. By the '80s, large appliances began to fall victim. Probably the last holdout were yard implements powered by small gasoline engines. Pretty much any small engine made before the mid 1990s is serviceable and can be made to run indefinitely if properly cared for. Once engine manufacturers started adding plastic parts in the '90s, they too became a thing of the past.