Electric Irons
The first electric iron was patented in the U.S. by Henry W. Seely just as the D&RG railroad was bringing tracks into Silverton in 1882. Seely’s iron was heated by an arc of electricity between two carbon rods. It weighed 15 pounds and was very unsafe. Early electric irons looked a lot like typical flatirons with two prongs located at the base for the electric hookup. The iron pictured below was available in the 1903 Sears catalog.
Electric irons were one of the first popular appliances in the United States. They were relatively inexpensive and saved so much time and effort that most households in the 1920s with electricity had an electric iron. The iron above (catalog number 86.4.103) is an "American Beauty" model 66AB made by the American Electric Heater Company of Detroit, perhaps in the 1920s.
With constant heat provided by a safer energy source, electric irons quickly became the standard and certainly made the chore easier. Today "permanent press" fabrics have all but relegated the iron to home sewists and quilters.