I chuckled when I hung our bed sheets to dry out in my sister’s backyard on a STEWI fold-up-dry-rack. They are *such* a Swiss household staple. But the thing that made me laugh and facepalm was when I discovered the product names on the STEWI site: they range from Lady to First Lady to Lady Compact. Oh, Switzerland….
STEWI for the win… :)
wenns au chli altbacken und politsch unkorrekt deher chonnt… semmer glich froh um si..
Jul 7th, 2015 / 8:10 am
Not until I moved to the States did I realize how typically “Swiss” they are :) Thanks for sharing!
Jul 7th, 2015 / 12:03 pm
not only Swiss, we have them in other European countries too
Jul 8th, 2015 / 10:32 am
I have one, not the Stewi brand, in Canada
Jul 8th, 2015 / 4:53 pm
They were all over in the U.S. In the 50’s. Then people discovered the clothes dryer.
Jul 8th, 2015 / 5:20 pm
Not quite a Swiss invention. Wiki entry on Stewi refers 1947 as start of Stewi manufacturing, along with a mention of a 1924 patent in England.
In the same way, Australia also claim it as an Aussie invention, aka Hills Hoist, Again in Wikipedia, it refers to Aussie patents along with a 1931 newspaper advertisement selling those rotary hoists. So we’ve been doing this for some 20 years before Stewi.
Hardly a surprise that the Hills Hoist made its worldwide appearance at the opening ceremony at Sydney Olympics 2000 given our reverence, never mind the foreigners’ bemusement.
PS: I’m both an Aussie and a Swiss.
Jul 8th, 2015 / 5:30 pm
In Austria, we call it a Wäschespinne.
Jul 10th, 2015 / 8:30 am
Sorry, that’s an Aussie Hills Hoist.
Jul 28th, 2015 / 7:29 pm