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First Hills hoist order book
Title : First Hills hoist order book First Hills hoist order book
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Creator : Hill, Lance
Date of creation : 1945-1946
Format : Manuscript
Catalogue record
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Copyright : This item is reproduced courtesy of Mr Trevor Hill. It may be printed or saved for research or study. Use for any other purpose requires written permission from Mr Trevor Hill and the State Library of South Australia. To request approval, complete the Permission to publish form.
Description :

Order book used by Lance Hill to record his orders and sales for Hills Hoist Clotheslines made in his backyard works, 7 Bevington Road, Glenunga.


In an Adelaide backyard, returned serviceman Lance Hill used scrap metal to develop a rotary clothes hoist in 1945. His wife had complained that the fruit trees were competing for space with the 'prop' clothes line.

The clothesline was popular with friends and family, so Hill and his brother-in-law Harold Ling established a business to supply the demand - the order book records early sales, when a hoist cost 10.10s and installation an extra 1.5s.

A rotary clothes hoist had been patented earlier by Gilbert Toyne, but Lance Hill's design was the first rotary clothes hoist to achieve national sales success.

The clothesline is now exported overseas and the 'Hills Hoist' has become an Australian cultural icon. Today, Hills Industries operates internationally and produces a wide range of products from building and industrial parts to play equipment.

Subjects
Related names :

Hills Industries

Period : 1946-1979
Further reading :
Harris, David What a line! : the story of the people who made the hoist an Australian icon: fifty years of Hills. Melrose Park, S. Aust.: Hills Printing Services, 1996
Internet links :

Hills Industries Limitedsee: The Hills story

ABC onlinesee: George Negus Tonight: History: 'Hills Hoist'

National Treasures from Australia's Great Librariessee: Industry and innovation: The Hills hoist

Powerhouse Museum, Sydneysee: Australia innovates: A century of innovation: Household and clothing: Hills clothes hoist


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