Our History
Washing machine marketers a century ago were trying to find the right
word to capture the public's imagination about the power of water.
One American company in 1888 created the Cataract brand to symbolize the
power of a waterfall or a fast river. The Nineteen Hundred Washer Co. of
Binghamton, N.Y. (a predecessor to modern-day Whirlpool Corporation),
acquired the rights to the Cataract name in 1916.
The Horton Manufacturing Co. of Fort Wayne, Ind., was credited with the
first registration of the Whirlpool brand name in 1907 for a washing
machine. The hand-operated product was known as the Horton Whirlpool
Washer, a brand name first used on July 5, 1906, about one year before
the first electric-powered wringer washer would appear on the market.
The Nineteen Hundred Washer Co. acquired the rights to the Whirlpool
brand name on Feb. 2, 1922. Three years later, the company registered
the Whirlpool Washer brand name and a symbol for a power-operated
clothes washing machine.
The Nineteen Hundred Washer Co. merged in 1929 with Upton Machine Co. of
St. Joseph, Mich., to create Nineteen Hundred Corporation.
The Whirlpool brand name was primarily attached to washing machines
until the late 1940s, when Nineteen Hundred introduced an automatic
dryer to compliment its washers. In 1949, the company embarked upon a
major campaign to boost the Whirlpool brand name in the United States by
using the swirl design with a "W" below it. In 1950 Nineteen Hundred was
renamed Whirlpool Corporation. In 1967 the Whirlpool logo changed when
the swirl was moved above the brand name. In 1981 the modern Whirlpool
logo's ring element was developed and first appeared in 1982.
Today, the Whirlpool brand is the single largest selling brand of
consumer appliances in the world.