Kitchens are rooms specifically set aside for food preparation, cooking and cleaning. The types of large kitchen appliances we are used to seeing in a kitchen include cookers, hobs, ovens, dishwashers, freezers and so on.  However, although kitchens have been around for a very long time, the large kitchen appliances that we commonly use today are relatively new inventions.

Although the inventions are new, the concept of what they do for us is not of course.  Cookers are simply controlled sources of heat, more controlled than the open fires of our ancestors, and lot safer for indoor use.  The same is true of dishwashers:  no more than automation of what most husbands have been doing manually for years – if you are lucky! Fridge freezers do the job that ice, snow and cold running water did in bygone days – keep food fresh.

The Cooker

So how and when did these familiar large appliances come to be developed?  Let’s start with the kitchen appliance that really makes a kitchen a kitchen:  the cooker. As we all know, cooking was originally done on open fires, and these improved in design and functionality through time until cooking fires were of a different form to those designed for heat, designed to collect wind in a specific way to increase the temperature of the flame in certain areas, others being used simply to keep food warm.  They were fitted with various stands and hooks to hold cooking pots.

When the cooking fire was brought indoors, it developed into the kitchen range, comprising the household fire used for heat, which could also heat water and perhaps a rudimentary form of central heating, and also contained an oven and cooking hobs.  The first stove as such, as opposed to an open fire, was recorded in France in 1490, made entirely of tiles and bricks, and fitted with a proper flue to take the smoke outside.

That, however, is not recorded as having been commercially available, and the first stoves to be made in bulk were produced in the late 1720s. Mainly of German design, these were superseded by a whole host of iron stoves, and even Benjamin Franklin was involved with his cast iron Franklin stove. These were all wood burners, and the first proper coal stove was developed in 1833.  Prior to this, in 1826, James Sharp had filed a patent for a gas stove, and the first electric cooker was invented in 1891, although it was in 1896 that William Hadaway patented the first electric stove.

It was not until the 1930s, however, that electric cookers were serious competitors for gas cookers, and both are used to this day, each having its particular advantages over the other.

The Microwave

The invention of the magnetron by Dr. Percy Spencer of the Raytheon Corporation in the mid 1940s paved the way for the microwave oven in 1947, although it was the mid 1950s before the first home model was available. This was highly priced at over $1200 – a lot of money then. However, as prices came down the microwave became more popular and is now the most popular method of cooking in the western world.

The Dishwasher

The first dishwasher was operated by hand, involving a wheel that splashed water onto the dishes. This was patented in 1850, and while not all that good, it was nevertheless the first filed patent.  There then followed a number of patents for hand-operated dishwashers, and later many of them were steam powered, involving a conveyor passing under sources of steam being blasted onto the dishes. Basically much the same as now, only not electric.

Domestic dishwashers did not become popular until the 1950s, and even then not really in Europe and the UK until much later. Labour-saving devices tended to be adopted according to necessity and the time saved, and the washing machine was considered by most to be more important than a dish washer, especially since many still did not trust it to do the job properly.  Today’s dishwashers, however, are very efficient and time-saving.

The Fridge Freezer

If you were lucky, up until the beginning of the 20th century your house would be situated by a running stream, and you could store food in the running water.  You might also have had an outhouse, designed for food storage:  much more effective in winter than in summer!  Ice and snow were popular, and many cellars would be lined with straw and packed with ice and snow. This is how the ancient Chinese and Egyptians kept their food cold.

It was not until the understanding and application of the principle that compressed gases remove heat from the air when they return to the gaseous state that artificial refrigeration was possible.  All that is required is to compress the right gas, decompress it and you have a refrigerator.  The same principal applies to the home freezer, and the Kelvinator was among the first domestic refrigerators in the early part of the 20th century.  Advances in technology have involved choosing the right gas, since the principle never changes.

The first self contained unit was introduced by Frigidaire in 1923, and now practically every home in the UK has a fridge or a fridge/freezer.

A Buying Guide to Large Kitchen Appliances

Large kitchen appliances are a major investment for most people, so it is wise to take whatever advice you can prior to parting with your cash.  Here are the major things to keep in mind when buying a kitchen appliance.

1.  First and foremost make sure that what you buy can fit into your kitchen. Many kitchens have limited space, with specific areas between units for cookers, refrigerators and the like.  That 6-ring cooker might look fabulous, but you will have problems if it is too wide for the space reserved for it. If you are having a new kitchen installed, choose your appliances first, and then have the kitchen designed round them.