Tea Kettles

	Calorius Electric Water Kettle Bodum cordless electric kettle $62.95
	Ibis Electric Water Kettle Bodum Ibis cordless hot water kettle $26.95
	Ottoni Water Kettle Bodum stovetop kettle $45.95

History of the Electric Tea Kettle

Earliest types
Electric Tea Kettles were a uniquely British product, owing its existence and development to the British habit of tea-drinking. The application of electricity to heat drinking water was similar to pressing laundry in that the new appliance developed from the traditional, non-electric product it was intended to replace. An electric kettle was first made by Crompton and Co. in 1891 and all the earliest examples had the element in a separate chamber under the water, maintaining the 'fire under the water' layout of traditional boiling vessels. The electric kettle was, with a few exceptions, a strictly functional object and seldom seen outside the kitchen, being regarded as a supplementary appliance to the electric cooker. The separation of water from the element made the kettle inefficient and expensive to run.

Improvements in efficiency and design
Faster boiling was achieved by Swan in 1922, by placing the element in a metal tube, directly into the water chamber. Swan, Hotpoint and some other manufacturers employed a cut-out or patented safety ejector mechanism which disconnected the electrical supply if the tea kettles boiled dry. Swan even provided a spare fuse inside the handle cavity. Despite such advances, most electric kettles of the 1920s and 1930s retained the traditional look of their non-electric ancestor, usually being made from copper with the option of nickel-plate or vitreous-enamel finish. Some lighter aluminum kettles were made in the 1930s and a few chrome-plated streamlined designs with Bakelite handles appeared in the late-1930s. During the 1939-45 war, Swan continued production of their utility electric tea kettles with a plain 'Wartime' finish, when other electrical appliance manufacturers were producing parts for planes and tanks: presumably, keeping the nation supplied with tea was more important that pressed laundry or clean floors. In the light of wartime metal shortages, Hawkins introduced an all-ceramic model.

Sleeker designs, usually with a chrome-plate finish and always with the element placed in the water, became the standard after 1945. It was not until ten years later in 1956, however, that the tea kettles caught up with the iron and toaster by appearing in a fully-automatic form. This was made by Russell Hobbs, using a controlled jet of steam from the boiling water to cut the power supply via a fast-acting bimetallic strip. This invention was the last stage in the development of the modern kettle until the plastic jug kettles of the late-1970s.

Article source: Simply Switch On Museum of Electrical Appliances