May Artifact of the Month: Coleman Gas Powered Iron
SHS1970.23.1 – Gift of Rose Josephine Drew
Written by Julia Cronin, Curator of Collections & Exhibits
May 5, 2023
Would you use this gas-powered contraption to do your weekly ironing? You are probably familiar with the Coleman name and may have used one of their many gas-powered products, such as a grill or lantern. Coleman started their company in 1900, selling gas lanterns, and branched out from there. They produced gas irons like this one from 1924 until 1982. This Model No. 4 Coleman Gasoline Clothes Iron was sold between 1929 and 1932. Lighting it is a lot like lighting a backpacking stove. It can be tedious, and I’ll give you one guess as to why the handle is singed.
Before the days of wrinkle-free fabrics, ironing was a more frequent and arduous task. Many hours were devoted to ironing clothes, bedding, tablecloths, towels, doilies, and anything else deemed too wrinkled to use. This seemingly simple process of using metal to apply heat to individual fibers in cloth to straighten them dates back more than 1,000 years to pans of hot coals in China. In Europe in the late Middle Ages (AD 1300-1500), blacksmiths began forging flat irons that could be heated on a stove. These “sad” or solid irons were usually used in pairs to always keep one hot. They had to be kept clean, polished, and rust-free. It took experience to know when the iron was hot enough to iron, but not to scorch, the fabric.
We as humans are always trying to improve our appliances. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw many ironing innovations. Turtle Bay has a variety of irons in the collection, including one iron made to contain hot coals. Many irons were heated by fuels including kerosene, ethanol, gasoline, whale oil, and carbide gas. The first Coleman gasoline iron was sold for a short period in the 1920s. It was made for them by the Monitor Sad Iron Company in Big Prairie, Ohio. Coleman started making their own irons with the Model No.3 in Wichita, Kansas. Coleman’s final irons were made in Toronto, Canada in 1982.
But why gas? It seemed rather dangerous when the electric flat iron, invented by American Harry Seeley, had already been patented in 1882. Seeley’s flat iron wasn’t perfect. It weighed almost fifteen pounds, took a long time to heat, and the temperature could not be controlled. But you didn’t need to light it! The first easier-to-use, thermostatically controlled electric irons appeared in the 1920s, around the same time this Coleman was developed, but electric irons require electricity. We take electricity for granted, but sales of gas irons were primarily to those who lived in rural areas without electricity. The Rural Electrification Act, passed in 1936, made low-cost loans available to bring electricity to rural communities. However, by 1950, however, still only eighty percent of U.S. farms had electric service and the rest still relied on gas appliances. Today, gasoline irons are still used in less developed countries.
How to light your Coleman No.4
Fill the tank with fresh white gas – Coleman brand preferred.
Replace the tank filler plug, unscrew the smaller knurled knob, pump eight strokes of air into the tank and tighten the knob.
Turn the gas tip cleaning lever, located at the entrance of the gas pipe into the iron body, several revolutions.
Hold a lighted match at, not in, the iron body lighting opening and open the generator valve.
As soon as the burner is lit, pump five additional strokes of air into the tank.
Allow the iron to heat for several minutes before regulating the burner.
Move the generator cleaning lever to adjust the gas flame for proper ironing and to keep the handle cool.
Turn off the iron using the generator valve wheel.
Relighting a warm iron is more complicated!