Do You Remember These Early Household Appliances?

In 1810, Englishman Peter Durand patented the first method for canning food. The cans were made of wrought iron and tin, and the manufacturers originally suggested opening them with a hammer and chisel. Almost 50 years later, in 1858, American Ezra J. Warner patented the first can opener, just as thin steel cans were coming into use.

After 10 years of design perfecting, the garbage disposal was finally unveiled in 1927. It was invented by architect John W. Hammes, who originally built the machine for his wife. After patenting his invention, Hammes created a company called In-Sink-Erator to make and sell his garbage disposals. That company is still in operation today in Racine, Wisconsin.

The grooved washboard was patented in 1797. Before then, clothes were washed in streams and rivers, or by abrading them on stones or purpose-made washing bats. The washboard, made of metal, glass, or wood, gained popularity in the 1800s as the best way to abrade dirt out of wet, soapy clothes.

Benjamin Franklin was a prolific inventor. In 1742, he and his friend Robert Grace invented the Franklin stove. Fitted over a fireplace, the low stove was made of loose iron plates, which allowed air to circulate and get warmer, regulating cooking temperature and helping heat the home while simultaneously saving fuel.

Victorian-era bakers loved whimsy, and pies didn’t escape that particular quirk of the age. In order to release the steam in baking pies, a hollow ceramic bird would be baked in the middle of the dessert. The bird’s beak pointed up to release the steam. While it may be cute, it’s certainly unnecessary; pies without a steam release in the middle bake just as nicely.

In Victorian-era England, homeowners used hot closets as designated spaces for drying clothes. Clothes were hung on frames and pushed into the hot closet, where coils of hot water pipes kept the room at the best temperature for evaporation. Moisture from the drying clothes escaped through a vented ceiling.

In 1901, British civil engineer H. Cecil Booth patented a game-changing appliance: the vacuum cleaner. This model was a far cry from the Roombas and Dustbusters we know today — Booth’s vacuum was petrol-engine-powered, placed on a cart pulled along by horses. When someone needed their home vacuumed, the cart would pull up outside, and hoses attached to the vacuum would be led into the property.

During World War II, short-range military radar used microwaves, electromagnetic waves that are shorter than radio waves and longer than infrared waves. When engineer Percy Spencer visited a lab that had microwaves in operation, he noticed a candy bar in his pocket began to cook. His curiosity was piqued, and he tried many other successful experiments before filing a patent for the food-cooking microwave in 1946.

The first dishwasher, patented in 1850 by Joel Houghton, wasn’t much more than a wooden box. It had scrubbers inside and used a hand-turned crank to splash water onto dishes. The dishwasher that we know and love today, however, was the brainchild of socialite Josephine Cochran in 1858. Cochran, tired of doing dishes by hand, utilized water pressure to create a much more effective machine out of copper.

Irons have a surprisingly long history. The first known clothing irons were invented in China in the first century BCE. These ancient appliances were about the same size and shape as today’s irons, but had one major difference: an internal empty chamber that was filled with charcoal from the fire to heat the iron up.

By the time the first colorful kitchen appliances hit stores in 1949, pots and pans, phones, and other small household items were already awash in color. Americans were surprised (and delighted) when the Indiana-based stove factory Chambers Company released their signature appliance in a rainbow of hues. This opened the door for the colorful large appliances iconic of the 1950s.

When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, he dubbed it a “speaking machine” — an apt description for the first device that allowed for recording and playback of sound. The phonograph recorded sound by using a steel needle to carve sound vibrations, like from someone speaking, into tin foil. Foil was eventually swapped for vinyl records, setting the stage for the modern recording industry.

Coal scuttles first came into use in the 18th century. Also known as “hods” or “carriers,” scuttles were simple metal buckets, but in wealthier homes, they were elaborately decorated pieces of furniture. Scuttles were kept near coal-burning stoves and opened when more fuel needed to be added.

Carpets were easily soiled in the 19th century due to ashes and soot from stoves. Rugs had to be taken outside, hung from clotheslines or fire escapes, and strenuously hit with sticks or rug beaters, which expelled clouds of dirt. Similar methods were used for fluffing pillows and cleaning cushions and bedding.

In the 1500s, people started bringing pans of fuel from the hearth to warm their beds before sleeping. Eventually, the bed warmer became a prized possession. It was typically made of copper, but among the wealthy, bed warmers were constructed out of silver. By the 1800s, the warmers became enclosed for cleanliness, and vent holes were added to keep the embers burning longer.

The multimillion-dollar whaling sector hit its peak in the mid-1800s. Most American homes and streets were lit with lamps burning whale oil — far superior to alternatives that were smellier or more volatile. In the 1850s, kerosene was discovered and became a better option since whales had become endangered.

In 1902, Buffalo Forge heating company worker Willis Haviland Carrier was tasked with finding a solution to prevent humidity at a Brooklyn printing company. The humid air made the paper expand and contract, which caused illustrations to be printed out of alignment. Carrier developed a system that used pistons to pump air over chilled coils and fan it out into the factory, cooling and dehumidifying the space.

The percolator is one of the earliest kitchen tools used for modern coffee brewing. The device originated in the 1810s, and percolators designed specifically for coffee were invented by a Chicago man named Hanson Goodrich in 1865. The appliance was commonly used for brewing coffee until it was largely replaced by drip coffee makers in the 1970s.

If you’ve ever built a fire, you know that you need to blow on the embers to help the flame catch. Back when most homes were heated with a fireplace or woodstove, that’s what bellows were used for. Bellows are small handheld appliances that fill up with air to blow onto the sparks so you don’t hyperventilate doing it yourself. Bellows have been around for centuries, dating as far back as 1800 BCE.

Boiled eggs have been eaten since ancient Egypt. In 1861, Isabella Beeton instructed in her hugely influential cookbook, “Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management,” that “the usual time allotted for boiling eggs in the shell is 3 to 3 3/4 minutes.” Twelve years later, the phrase “egg timer” entered the lexicon to describe small hourglasses that were designed to help cook the perfect three-minute egg.

Some people still call refrigerators “iceboxes,” but real iceboxes were a different invention. Most common from the mid-1800s to the 1930s, iceboxes were insulated wood boxes lined with tin or zinc that held a block of ice that kept food cold. The ice blocks were harvested from lakes in the winter and stored in ice houses until they were sold by icemen.