Every teasmade model in date order.
1920s
Ethelred Alfred Willson applied for a patent for ‘Improvements in Automatic Means for Heating Water, Making Tea and the Like’ on 1st Oct 1928, and it was published on 1st Jan 1930. 1. 1 Apparatus controlled by clock or other timing mechanism for use in heating liquid wherein the supply
1930s
In 1930 Ronald George Grumble, an instrument maker and inventor from Eltham, Kent, made a highly desirable automatic teasmade, the ‘Early Morning Waiter’, using both gas and electricity. His machine comprises a wooden plinth on which the entire apparatus was mounted, with a separate combined clock and time switch. A
1930s
On 2nd May 1932, George Absolom submitted an application for a patent on his invention, a "New or improved apparatus for the making of beverages" in the form of an electric automatic tea maker, soon to be known as the Teesmade (sic). The word ‘teesmade’ was certainly initiated
1930s
On November 22nd 1932 Mrs Joy Dorothy Virmani applied for a British Patent via Hatton Gardens patent agents Boult Wade and Tennant, for the largest teasmade I have ever seen! The application was on behalf of the Bombay Radio Company, then of 73-75 Marine Lines, opposite Marine Lines Station,
1930s
Ethelred Alfred Willson and Alfred John Tennison made a second GB patent application on 21st March 1932, also for ‘Improvements in Automatic Means for Heating Water, Making Tea and the Like’.
1930s
William Hermann Brenner Thornton created a plywood bodied prototype teasmade in 1932. The example illustrated here was donated to the National Science Museum by the inventor himself, William Hermann Brenner Thornton (then of Wargrave), in 1970. It was made mostly of plywood. *
1930s
On January 27th 1933, William Hermann Brenner Thornton applied for his first patent on a teasmade. This was less than a year after George Augustus Absolom’s patent of May 2nd 1932. Apparatus for making hot beverages Application Number GB19330002684 19330127 Publication Number 414088 (A) Application Date January 27, 1933
1930s
The battle to produce a commercial electric teasmade was extraordinarily heated. The two earliest inventions were Absolom’s patent application of May 2nd 1932, followed by William Hermann Brenner Thornton‘s (taken up by Goblin) on Jan 27th 1933. Edward Beckingsale’s followed with a patent application on 4th April
1930s
On January 23rd 1934 William Hermann Brenner Thornton, (on this occasion calling himself William Harry Thornton), applied for a second patent, no 432207. It was from this prototype that Goblin’s first commercial automatic tea maker was derived. Making of hot beverages Application Number GB19340002287 19340123 Publication Number 432207 (A)
1930s
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:
1930s
A Goblin leaflet about the 1936 teasmade range featured two models: an Alarm Model with a clock, and a Day Model without. The Day Model is incredibly rare as Doug believes it was sold for no more than a year and discontinued due to low demand. By chance Doug found
1930s
Goblin purchased the rights to William Hermann Brenner Thornton’s design, and manufactured the first commercial Goblin Teasmade in 1937. It was made of plywood, and a lampshade “of a pleasing and modern design” was included. The kettle was chrome plated and was fitted with a patented element. It was
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