Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow of Electric Kettles
2008-08-06

An electric kettle is the best way to boil water for home and office use. It makes hot beverages like tea fast and easy to prepare. Tea tastes much better when made with freshly boiled water, compared to water heated in a microwave. The electrical kettle is normally constructed out of durable plastic or steel (with a plastic handle).All these kettles switch off automatically when the water boils, which is a big advantage over the stove top kettles which whistle until you turn them off.

YESTERDAY

A bronze vessel almost identical to a modern kettle in shape, with a decorated spout, is known from Mesopotamia in 3500 to 2000 BC. It was, however, probably used for filtering rather than for boiling water. The tea kettle evolved from the cooking kettle that was hung on a hook on an iron post in the cooking fire. The hook was turned to move the kettle over the fire, and a "tilter" helped to pour water from the kettle. Kettles were made of iron, one of the first metals to be mined and processed. The tea kettle's development was closely linked to the evolution of the stove. When stoves replaced cooking fires, the kettle was pulled from the fire and given a place on the stove. The first electric kettle was developed in Chicago in 1891, by the Carpenter Electric Company of the United States. It took twelve minutes to heat the water. It used the electrical heat radiator, which laded to the kettle's bottom and led to a large loss of heat. In 1923, Arthur L. Large, from Birmingham, England, invented the immersed heating resistor. A safety valve was introduced by kettle maker Walter H. Bullpitt, also from Birmingham, in 1931. In 1956 Russell Hobbs produced the first fully automatic kettle. 

TODAY

Nowadays, in American, the sales of electric kettles have been climbing lately thanks to a resurgence of tea drinking which is second only to water worldwide. In China, the electrical kettle belongs to small household appliances of western-styles. The speed of the development is rapid though it has not a long history. The production of the electrical kettle industry began in China 15 years ago. Main of the manufacturers is export-oriented. The biggest market is in Europe. In order to change the past impression, low technological contents, quality and of no security, many domestic enterprises have made great efforts to enhance their technology, improve the performance of the electrical kettle. Having developed in China for 10 years, the electrical kettles made in China have reached of the track on the international market both from the technical and the design. They follow close on the international market tidal and have their own characteristics.

FUTURE

1. Consumers are more interested in the stainless steel.As the Chinese traditional concept making higher grades of stainless steel products, the general trend of the purchase in Chinese domestic market is still stainless steel. Another, most people feel that the plastic material of the pots easily leads to smell and stainless steel kettle is more healthy and more environmentally friendly. 2. The chassis heating way becomes the mainstream day by day.Seeing from the history of the thermostat development, the automatic power off has a history of 30 years. At the beginning, the electrical kettles use heating tubes. Now the trend is the chassis heating methods. This way is the one which may get a higher power, and an attractive outward appearance. In European, the in-line type electrical kettles share already less than 20%, the nearly 80% markets were the chassis type. 3. Additional features enhance product quality.Some additional features are popular in Europe, not only to meet consumer demand for drinking water, but also meet the visual needs of the consumers. That is having the effect of flashing lights. In appearance the water not boiled looks red, the water boiled looks blue. Such a kettle looks so beautiful of water inside that more and more consumers love. In the similar situation, many electrical kettles boil the water but can not kept it hot. But it is not conform to the Chinese tradition customs in drinking water. In recent years the electrical kettles, this western-style small household product, started to do in Rome as Rome does. The electrical kettles with heat preservation function have come out. The appearance of this function will make the electrical kettles obtain more widespread approval and share a bigger market.