All About Electric Kettles

Who invented them and why you should use them

The use of electric kettles in America owes much to the development of tea kettles in Britain. Kettle is a very protean word, and can be used to describe items as varied as iron cooking kettles in Japan, or self-boiling Russian water heaters known as samovars. But in Britain, earthenware and metal kettles were often used for boiling water for tea. British and American inventors experimenting with this design would be responsible for inventing electric kettles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The first electric kettles

Fittingly enough, both the British and Americans claim to have invented the first electric kettle. In America, the invention of the electric kettle is attributed to the Carpenter Electric Company. Their electric kettle was developed in Chicago in 1891 and housed the heating element in a separate compartment beneath the water.

When the Carpenter electric kettle was displayed at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, it used the electrical heat radiator concept developed in 1891 by R.E.B. Crompton of England's Crompton and Company. So even if the Americans were first, they evidently felt the Brits had done it better.

Before the invention of the modern electric kettle, there was a further advancement made by The Swan Company in 1922. They sealed the electric kettle's heating element inside a metal tube placed into the water chamber.

But the man universally credited with inventing an electric kettle with a fully immersed heating element was Arthur L. Large of Birmingham, England, who did so in 1923. (Apparently the residents of Birmingham were obsessive about their tea, for another Birmingham resident, a kettle maker named Walter H. Bullpitt, invented the electric kettle safety valve 8 years after Large's invention.)

Why electric kettles?

Even a luddite would have to admit that electric kettles are an instance of technological advancement that provides tangible benefits. Electric kettles boil water faster than stove-top kettles, and contrary to conventional wisdom, they're also more energy efficient. So if you're still boiling water on your stove: that's very quaint, but totally unnecessary.

There are other advantages that electric kettles offer. Their handles are designed for safety, and remain cool even when the water inside is at a boil. That means no more oven mitts or using tea towels to pick up your kettle. While on the topic of safety, electric kettles also turn off automatically, which is a necessity for the absent-minded among us.

Electric kettles are also easier to clean. Conventional kettles have narrow mouths in order to retain heat and reduce their already slow boiling times. Electric kettles don't need this design efficiency, and that wider mouth is handy come clean up time.

Regular cleaning of your electric kettle will be necessary, though they're otherwise low maintenance appliances. Cleaning will be required more often if you live in a hard water region, as trace amounts of calcium salts will otherwise form deposits in your electric kettle. Swirling some lemon juice around the insides of electric kettles will combat such buildups.

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