1935 Absolom Patent Number GB440941

Patent number GB440941 was applied for on August 21st 1935. George reached an agreement with L.G. Hawkins to manufacture these tea makers for them. The unit, branded as the Tecal, was manufactured by George Absolom from 1936 until the beginning of World War 2 in 1939.

The patent reads:

440,941. Tea – making apparatus. ABSOLOM, G. A., 52, Lansbury Drive, Hayes, Middlesex, and JOHNSON, G. H., Hampton Works, Sheen Lane, Mortlake, London. Aug. 21, 1935, No. 23471. [Class 129] [See also Group XI] In apparatus for making hot beverages, incorporating a time switch controlling the heating element of a boiler delivering boiling water to a receiving vessel, and switch actuating means operated by movement of the emptied boiler, the whole structure which is supported on a horizontal surface 19 is adapted to rock about feet 7 so placed that the boiler 8 and its platform 10 are situated on one side of the rocking axis and the time switch and associated components on the other. A mercury switch 17 is carried by a rocking arm 16 near to the fixed end of which a rod 18 bearing on the supporting surface 19 is pivotally connected, so that when the boiler water has been discharged into a vessel placed under a pipe 9 and the structure rocks about feet 7, the rod 18 tilts up the mercury switch and contacts 21, 22 in the boiler heater circuit are separated. At the same time contacts 20, 21 in a buzzer and lamp circuit are bridged. A switch 24 enables the buzzer to be cut out, the lamp remaining alight under control of a switch 15.