This appliance was used by almost every housewife in the USSR: now everyone has forgotten about it

Poverty and total shortages in the USSR led to the fact that craftsmen from the people had to construct various clumsy inventions that now only cause bewilderment. However, in those times and under those conditions, they were a real salvation.

One of these devices was the VWM. A person born after 1990 is unlikely to guess what it is and why it was needed. OBOZ.UA tells the details.

The answer lies in deciphering the name of the mysterious device. VWM is a vibrating washing machine. And there was even a separate article about it in the Soviet Encyclopedia of Household Economics.

According to it, the VWM was called "an electric appliance that is immersed in a washing tank, basin, or bucket to do all the mechanical work of washing and rinsing clothes." Inside the mushroom-shaped plastic case was an electromagnetic converter of electrical energy into the energy of sound vibrations. Through the membrane, these vibrations were transmitted to water with soap dissolved in it. It was believed that these vibrations would be enough to push out the contamination from the tissues.

The VWM had quite serious limitations in its operation. It could not work for more than 1 hour in a row. After that, it had to be turned off for at least 10 minutes. In addition, it was necessary to make sure that water did not reach the rubber ring on its body, otherwise the home assistant would immediately break down. The amount of laundry that could be handled by such a device was no more than 2.5 kg, the same as a very compact modern washing machine.

The VWM was invented in the 1950s and 1960s. This is despite the fact that in the West, the first washing machines began to appear half a century earlier.

The amazing device was developed at one of the military-industrial complex enterprises. Its engineers worked on a non-core project in their spare time, which seemed to be successful. In the absence of alternatives, the development went to the people.

The quality of laundry using the VWM left much to be desired. In addition, its operation required the personal presence of a person, and the process itself took a long time. Nevertheless, the alternative to the invention was tedious manual washing, so it was popular despite all its shortcomings. But at the slightest opportunity, it was still replaced by a washing machine.

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