Have you ever had the fortune of sewing on one of these bad boys? It's an Elna 1 - more commonly known as the Grasshopper. My aunt has one (picked it up for a song at a thrift store, I believe) and she let me try it out a few weeks back.
What you can't see from this picture is that instead of a foot pedal like most of us are familiar with, to make this machine go, you have to press on a metal lever with your knee. Yes, not only were women of the post-war era expected to cook, clean, raise the kids and look pretty - they were also expected to be ultra-coordinated so that they could properly operate their sewing machines. I had a heck of time for the first little bit but eventually even I got the hang of it. I've asked my aunt to be on the lookout for another one for me!
Among its other virtues, this machine is probably pretty much indestructible. We have Mark's great aunt's vacuum cleaner from the 1950s and it's the best we've ever had. They knew how to make a machine back then.
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