          |
 By 1900
one in four houses had a gas cooker - the majority being in urban areas.
"The first electric cookers were manufactured with hot plates made with
coiled wires inside which did not last long...It was not until the early 1930s
that problems of the means of electrical supply and the means of production
were sufficiently overcome to allow the possibility of mass production of
electrical kitchen appliances".
"At the end of the first world war perhaps 6% of rich
people's houses were wired for electricity. In 1926 the figure was 18%, in 1938
65% and by 1949 86%. In London in 1942 81% of households cooked on a gas stove
or a gas ring but in the same year the figure in rural Gloucestershire was only
3%." |
| "As
all these new appliances began to be installed in the majority of kitchens, two
themes predominated: the first was the escape from drudgery - labour saving
devices! An Electrical Development Association pamphlet issued in 1925
promises...Indeed, electricity comes as a timely solution of the servant and
other problems, which threatened to disturb that most potent factor in
civilisation - The Home; electricity provides the modern housewife with a
perfect servant, clean, silent, economical. What used to be the labour (hard
labour) of hours is now accomplished almost without effort in a matter of
minutes." Corbishley:1993:13 |
"By
the late 20th century, as food became easier to prepare, the whole business of
cooking and eating was often subjected to the flexible rhythms of people's
lives, with one person responsible for the cooking. Ironically, convenience
cooking and convenience eating often takes place in what are termed traditional
country kitchens, whereas in fact traditional country cooking was inconvenient,
time-consuming and involved going outside and digging up vegetables and
herbs."
Planel:2000:31 |
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