Inventor of the one and only self-cleaning home, Frances Gabe, has passed away at 101

2017-07-19T13:55:00-04:00

In each room, Ms. Gabe, tucked safely under an umbrella, could press a button that activated a sprinkler in the ceiling. The first spray sent a mist of sudsy water over walls and floor. A second spray rinsed everything. Jets of warm air blew it all dry. The full cycle took less than an hour. Runoff escaped through drains in Ms. Gabe’s almost imperceptibly sloping floors. It was channeled outside and straight through her doghouse, where the dog was washed in the bargain.

More than half a century ago, incensed by the housecleaning that was a woman’s chronic lot, Ms. Gabe began to dream of a house that would see to its own hygiene: tenderly washing, rinsing and drying itself at the touch of a button.

Ms. Gabe built the self-cleaning house with her own hands and money, receiving United States patent 4,428,085 in 1984. After more than 10 years of work and decades of planning, the house of about a thousand square feet was completed in the 1980s, at a cost of $15,000.

Floor plan

The house, whose patent consisted of 68 individual inventions, also included a cupboard in which dirty dishes, set on mesh shelves, were washed and dried in situ.
A tightly sealed cabinet was designed to deal with laundry. Soiled clothing was placed inside on hangers, washed and dried there with jets of water and air, and then, still on hangers, pulled neatly by a chain into the clothes closet. Her sink, toilet and bathtub were also self-cleaning.
In order to withstand their washing t...

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Inventor of the one and only self-cleaning home, Frances Gabe, has passed away at 101