Tabletop Mixer
History & Background
In 1908 a man by the name of Herbert Johnson invented a very much needed piece of equipment, called the mixer. Initially, the mixer was put here to make bread dough, and was quickly being put to use. By 1915 Herbert’s 80 qt. mixer became much more of a standard use in kitchens on U.S. navy vessels and in many bakeries around the U.S. The only thing holding him back at this point from jumping into business was strictly because of WW1. But luckily by 1918, many company executives began to test these machines out in kitchens in American homes, so the popularity of the mixer began to rise.
Not much later, the 5 qt. countertop mixer came into the picture. But high costs, each mixer costing about $189.50 (which today that be equivalent to about $2,000), led to not so many people rushing to buy the device. So about 10 years later a man by the name Egmont Ahrens, slimmed it down and cut the costs to about $55. I’m not quite sure how much that would be today.
The Kitchen Aid mixer took a while to really get into the system. So a way that the company fixed this was by sending women door to door with the mixer, having them go into the private kitchens of homes kitchens and giving first hand demonstrations. This way of getting the product out, worked!
Many attachments, used for a variety of different things, could be put on this mixer. Ranging from a pea splitter, to a meat grinder. And the attachments created in 1919, would still be able to fit into a brand new 2012 addition mixer. It has stayed somewhat the same for a whole entire lifetime.
I own a kitchen aid. They should be common in every household, they are reasonably priced based on their durability and performance, and can be used to do practically anything.