The Industrial Age brought great innovation, invention and a change in economic and social dynamics that impacted homes, lifestyles and consumerism around the world. Here’s a snapshot of the remarkable devices, machines and appliances that propelled the kitchen to today’s heart of the home.

By Dianne M. Pogoda

High Tech: It’s All Relative

You could say the kitchen was in somewhat of a rut for a few thousand years. After primitive humans harnessed fire and realized its potential, they developed several methods of cooking, from a kettle suspended over an open flame, to early forms of grilling, fireside hearth cooking and finally, developing ovens. (Thank heavens for the chimney.) But cooking tech remained fairly simple — heat and eat — for many years, until the Industrial Age (roughly 1760 to the mid-to-late 1800s) and its avalanche of inventions. In the home, these were largely directed to the kitchen.

A new slew of stoves appeared. The oversized Rumford stove (circa 1800) was an energy-efficient model that could heat several pots with one fire; a scaled-down Oberlin stove, patented in 1834 in the U.S., fit into more houses and sold 90,000 units over the next 30 years. The first U.S. patent on a gas stove was granted in 1825, although it didn’t, ahem, catch fire until the late 1800s. Electric stoves were introduced in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, but couldn’t take off until electricity was stable enough to be installed in a large number of homes.

Electric stoves were introduced in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, but couldn’t take off until electricity was stable enough to be installed in a large number of homes.

In 1850, Joel Houghton invented the dishwasher — a wooden contraption with a hand-turned wheel. Thirty-six years later, the first commercially available automatic dishwasher was invented by Josephine Cochrane. It featured specially designed racks to hold plates, saucers and cups, and had a motorized wheel, and an attached boiler provided hot water to clean the dishes more effectively. Cochrane went into business, and her company is now known as KitchenAid.

In 1876, Carl von Linde, a German engineer known for his processes of liquifying gases to form the basis for modern refrigeration, is credited with introducing the first refrigerator.

Storage was in short supply around the turn of the 20th century — but as always, people needed places to keep their stuff. Indiana’s Hoosier Manufacturing Co. adapted a freestanding baker’s cabinet to offer storage space, counters, shelves, bins and other accessories.

A big step forward came courtesy of Margarethe Schütte-Lihotzky, who designed the Frankfurt Kitchen in 1926. Its standard layout measured about 6 feet-by-11 feet, with a mission of optimizing kitchen work to reduce cooking time and lower the cost of building decently equipped kitchens. Her design was the result of detailed time-motion studies and interviews with future tenants to identify what they needed from their kitchens. Schütte-Lihotzky’s fitted kitchen was built in some 10,000 apartments in the housing projects erected in Frankfurt, Germany, in the Thirties. 

This led to standardization and ultimately unit construction, with mass-produced cabinetry built offsite and installed in the home.  

Post-War Boom and Beyond

The strides in manufacturing and technology that came out of WWII — and subsequently, the Cold War, the Space Race, and most recently, the coronavirus pandemic — found their way into the home and the kitchen — always a hub of residential innovation. But it wasn’t only the “function” portion of the equation. The post-war boom brought with it highways, housing and suburban sprawl to accommodate millions of budding families — hello, Levittown — with gleaming white kitchens. These new families wanted their homes to be beautiful as well as functional.

Pastels brightened the kitchens (and baths) of the Fifties, turned into psychedelic pop shades in the Sixties, morphed into earth tones in the Seventies, and reverted to pristine white in the Eighties. Form truly followed function, right out to the ’burbs, and the marketing machine kicked into high gear, touting colorful cabinets and countertops, appliances in almond, avocado and harvest gold, and handy gadgets to make the drudgery of housework seem like a dream.

The Seventies, Eighties and Nineties spawned inventions and innovations at a rapid pace, in both technology and design trends, and the kitchen evolved into a hub for entertaining as well as cooking. As the Women’s Movement of the Seventies brought more housewives into the workforce, the need for more efficient appliances and time-saving devices grew. Microwave ovens — developed in the Forties and Fifties — increasingly found their way into modern kitchen designs. Kitchens started to take up more square footage in the home, and open-plan concepts spilled to other spaces — especially the family/great room — and out onto patios. Islands started to take on a central role in the kitchen as a station for culinary helper, or for friends to gather round while the chef put finishing touches on the feast of the day.

In the Seventies, kitchens started to take up more square footage in the home, and open-plan concepts spilled to other spaces — especially the family/great room — and out onto patios. 

We’re All Connected

The dawn of the 21st century brought connectivity to all parts of our lives. Fantasy gadgets conjured up in “The Jetsons” or “Star Trek” had become realities. The saturation of the smartphone, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Alexa and her friends, new levels of efficiency in appliance operation and storage innovations have all made the kitchen function well and look sleek and streamlined.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 left in its wake a remarkable new appreciation for the home — since many were sequestered in lockdown — and an equally remarkable surge in home improvement. Much of it was centered on keeping things clean: filtering air and water, sanitizing surfaces, avoiding contact with as much as possible through the use of touchless faucets and plumbing, motion sensors and voice-command, app-based control over various home systems.

Another pandemic-inspired focus was health and wellness. Eating and preparing fresh foods at home became a desirable alternative to fast food or dining out for many, and this trend has resulted in more storage requirements — especially for produce. Large walk-in butler’s pantries have become a hot design element for anyone who had the space for them, often housing an extra sink for really messy clean-ups, an extra fridge and sometimes a second dishwasher. Refrigeration has advanced to include blue-light technology that mimics the photosynthesis process, “tricking” fruits and vegetables into staying fresher, longer.

An intensified awareness of environmental issues also led to great strides in sustainability efforts, not only in making appliances that use less energy and water, but also in the manufacturing process, with most companies in the K&B sector launching programs to reach zero-net greenhouse gas emissions within the next couple of decades.

As many companies changed to accommodate remote working arrangements, the kitchen also changed to accommodate these evolving lifestyles, the family hub and multifunctional workspace, contributing to a K&B design and renovation market in North America that’s approaching $190 billion — $91.7 billion for the kitchen alone.

The 21st century saturation of the smartphone, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and home assistants, plus new levels of efficiency in appliance operation and storage innovations, have all made the kitchen function well and look sleek and streamlined. 

Along with these lifestyle changes, layouts of kitchen and great room also evolved. In the early part of the 21st century, tearing down walls was all the rage to make the family living and entertaining space one big area. But as work-from-home arrangements increased, so did the need for some privacy when engaging in a business call or video meeting. Homeowners still liked the open concept, however, so clever design ideas developed with the ability to temporarily close off parts of the space as needed. Additionally, charging stations, increased Wi-Fi bandwidth and network capacity became an even more crucial part of kitchen and home renovations. (Enter the integrator.)

And tech advances will most assuredly continue to grow exponentially. In fact, since you started reading this, someone no doubt has come up with another amazing innovation that will make us wonder how we ever lived without it. But no matter how far these advancements take us, the kitchen will always be the heart of the home.

See Part 1 of “The Kitchen Evolution” here.