I'd suspect those early cages were to prevent accidentally bumping into it, rather than child-safety.

Child-safety is a pretty high bar, even if it's common today. You not only have to prevent someone accidentally hurting themselves, but more-or-less intentionally doing so.

It was not a finger-friendly time for technology. Here, take a look at the Farmall tractor/buzzsaw combination that is quite similar to the one I grew up cutting wood with (and probably only slightly newer than some of those fans) :

http://sketchesofalaska.blogspot.com/2012/08/farmall-tractor...

I have all fingers and toes, but you couldn't sell that shit today without getting sued out of existence.

Yes, it seems more like an open air blender than a fan.

I bet the cages nowadays were the result from a lawsuit. A lot of safety precautions (and warnings) are from that. I'm not knocking it, people do need to be protected from themselves (and accidents), I'm objecting to the massive damages lawsuits.

This was designed in an era when safety was seen as the responsibility of the user, not the manufacturer. It was your responsibility not to stick your fingers in there, not the manufacturer's responsibility to prevent you from doing so.

The kids were already electrocuted by the Edison sockets.

The early home installations for electric power where mindbogglingly unsafe.