On 2012-04-13, Graham wrote:

On 13 Apr 2012 13:05:57 GMT, John Stumbles
wrote:

My mum's got one of those contraptions of 4 strips of wood suspended from
a pair of metal hangers, raised and lowered from pulleys screwed into the
ceiling by sash-cord-type rope. She's getting on and finding it hard to
manage the weight so I'm thinking of some sort of winch which would give
her a mechanical advantage, or maybe even some sort of electric gizmo. My
Google-fu isn't winning he anyone have any suggestions for sources of
suitable devices?

We had one in the house where I grew up 1950s/60s,
but I never knew until now what it was called.

I think we just called ours "the rack".

In Scotland it's just called "an airer".

;-)