Hung Out To Dry

Gilbert Toyne’s classic Australian clothes hoist

by Peter Cuffley and Cas Middlemis

Cas Middlemis, 2009, [First Edition], ISBN 9780646508559, colour and black and white photographs and illustrations throughout, hardcover, dust-jacket

Near Fine Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, no inscriptions, dust-jacket minor edge and shelf wear (see photographs)

“The rotary clothes hoist is an Australian icon.  Hung Out to Dry tells the story of Gilbert Toyne, the inventor who designed and patented the first all-metal Australian rotary clothes hoist.
Born near Geelong in 1888, Gilbert Toyne patented four significant designs for rotary clothes hoists, between 1911 and 1926.  By the 1930s, Toyne’s rotary clothes hoist was available for purchase across Australia and New Zealand, with manufacturing bases established in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.
This book introduces Gilbert Toyne’s life and work, and reveals some of the underlying reasons why the ‘Toyne hoist’ is not a household name in Australia.
Toyne originally trained as a blacksmith and wheelwright, yet this clever and inspired man strove to establish his product nationwide and beyond.  Toyne’s rotary clothes hoist was considered to be ‘indispensible in a modern residence’ in 1913.  Then World War I interrupted production and marketing, and the Aeroplane Hoist Manufacturing Company of Australasia Limited closed its doors.  Toyne served in the Great War and returned home to face personal turmoil in 1919.  But he was still passionately committed to promoting his clothes hoist invention, and uprooted his family a number of times in order to establish production centres in three states.  Although his efforts to control the Australian market were thwarted by world events and personal loss, Gilbert Toyne’s patented 1926 all-metal design defined the standard for Australian rotary clothes hoists for decades to follow.”