Have you ever given the history of the kitchen tools we use on a daily basis any thought? Let’s go back in time today to discover the intriguing past of one such necessary appliance: the mixer.
The Inaugural Years of Blending
Our narrative starts in the middle of the 1800s, when innovators all around the world began experimenting with ways to simplify and expedite the process of combining ingredients. A Baltimore tinner named Ralph Collier received the first mixer with revolving parts patent in 1856. In less than a year, E.P. Griffith unveiled the whisk, a game-changing appliance for mixing substances. The hand-turned rotary egg beater invented by J.F. and E.P. Monroe left their imprint as well; it was patented in the US in 1859.
The Dover Stamping Company noticed these early prototypes and purchased the patent from the Monroe Brothers. Known as the “Dover beater,” the Dover egg beaters rose to fame in the United States. The renowned Dover beater was featured in a wonderful dessert dish called “Hur-Mon Bavarian Cream” published in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Gazette in February 1929, demonstrating how highly esteemed these beaters were.
Welcome to the Age of Electricity
The first electric mixer didn’t appear until 1885, owing to the creative imagination of American inventor Rufus Eastman. But it was the enormous commercial mixers made by Hobart Manufacturing Company that really changed the sector. They debuted a revolutionary new model in 1914 that completely altered the mixer market.
Consumers began to choose the Hobart KitchenAid and the Sunbeam Mixmaster, two well-known American brands, in the early 20th century. However, until the 1920s, when they started to become widely used for domestic use, domestic electric mixers remained a rarity in most families, despite their popularity.
Engineer Herbert Johnston of the Hobart Manufacturing Company had an epiphany in 1908 when he saw a baker using a metal spoon to stir bread dough. After realizing there had to be a simpler method, he set out to develop a mechanical equivalent.
The majority of sizable bakeries had used Johnston’s 20-gallon mixer as regular equipment by 1915. The Hobart Manufacturing Company unveiled the Kitchen Aid Food Preparer, eventually dubbed the stand mixer, just four years later in 1919. This ground-breaking creation swiftly established itself as a national kitchen standard.
This indispensable kitchen appliance has come a long way, starting with the hand-turned rotary beaters of the 19th century and continuing with the invention of electric motors and the stand mixer. Many changes have been made to it to make our lives in the kitchen easier.
Therefore, remember the long history of your reliable mixer the next time you whip up some cookies or mix up a delicious cake batter. It is evidence of human inventiveness and the drive to make daily tasks simpler.
Apart from the mixer, another useful culinary instrument with an intriguing past is the meat grinder. This device, which is sometimes referred to as a “meat mincer” in the UK, is used for chopping and combining raw or cooked meat, fish, vegetables, and other ingredients.
Karl Drais created the first iteration of this amazing device in the nineteenth century, which begins the history of the meat grinder. Long, thin strands of flesh were produced by hand-cranked meat grinders that forced the meat through a metal plate with tiny pores.
As electricity became more widely available and technology advanced, manufacturers started producing meat grinders that were powered. The smooth and consistent processing of many pounds of beef is made possible by these contemporary electric grinders. The functionality of meat grinders has been greatly increased with the addition of attachments for tasks like juicing, kibbe, and sausage-making, which are included with some versions.
Thus, keep in mind the adventure and creativity that led to the creation of your meat grinder the next time you’re chopping meat for a delicious dish or experimenting with handmade sausages. It’s evidence of how kitchen gadgets have developed to enhance and facilitate our culinary explorations.
Patrick Hardison received a new face after third-degree burns, this is him today
The life story of Patrick Hardison from Mississippi is nothing less than a mind-blowing one. This man is the first American who has received a face transplant back in 2015 after his face and neck were left completely disfigured during a house fire.
Patrick’s life was a great one up until the day the tragedy struck in 2001.
He worked as a volunteer firefighter earlier in his life, so when he got called to help with a house fire, he didn’t hesitate. Sadly, once he entered the burning place, it collapsed on top of him and trapped him. He couldn’t move and his torso and face were severely burnt.
“[My mask] was melting to my face,” Patrick recalled. “My hose [was] already melted.”
“For somebody who does what we do for a living, I’ve never seen anybody burned that bad that was still alive,” friend and first responder Jimmy Neal told CBS News of seeing Patrick after the accident.
Patrick suffered third degree burns on his face and scalp. He also sustained burns to his head, neck, and upper torso. The fire also claimed his ears, lips, most of his nose, and even most of his eyelid tissue.
“I didn’t actually see myself until probably November. I got injured in September,” Patrick told Fox News. “They had cut a little pinhole in one of my eyelids because they had everything covered, skin graft. I looked in the mirror and all I could do, I said, ‘this is it? I can’t do this,’” he recalled.
Over the years, this man was forced to undergo over 70 surgeries, as well as other procedures. He couldn’t close his eyes and doctors were able to put together flaps of skin to protect his vision, but he was still facing the risk of going blind.
Patrick couldn’t eat without feeling excruciating pain. He just couldn’t get used to this life because he couldn’t look at himself in the mirror. Wherever he went, everyone starred at him, and he could barely stand being around people, even his children.
In order to hide and protect himself, Patrick wore sunglasses and a baseball cap all the time. He also had ear prosthetic.
“I had kids. It was just a tough time. I never got a day off from the injury. When you walk out in public, it was daily. And, you know, it’s just so — there’s no way to explain everything,” he told Yahoo! Sports.
“You go to the ball field, you have to prepare yourself for the kid that goes running off screaming.”
Years went by and Patrick lost hope of ever having a normal life. But then, French woman named Isabelle Dinoire received a partial face transplant after her face was severely disfigured by her pet dog. This procedure was revolutionary. It was the first ever of that kind. Surely, it gave a glimpse of hope to Patrick who at that point was truly struggling.
Patrick met doctor Eduardo D. Rodriguez from the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York who told him he would do the transplant surgery if they find a matching donor. It wasn’t easy, but one day, out of the blue, a donor appeared. LiveOnNY, a nonprofit that coordinates organ donations in the New York area, had found a match. The face Patrick was about to get belonged to 26-year-old David Rodebaugh who had sustained a massive head injury in a bike accident and had been declared brain dead.
This young man’s mother, Nancy Millar, decided to donate her son’s organs, including his face. “I said, ‘You better save his face. He has the face of a porcelain doll.’ And he’s a donor — we had talked about it,” Millar told People.
The thought of someone receiving her son’s face meant that David would continue to live on through the people whose lives he was about to save, including Patrick’s.
“When I met Patrick, I saw this strength, this strong, manly, burly kind of energy in him — that David had,” Nancy recalled.
“David wanted to be a firefighter, an I knew if this guy was a firefighter — he was willing to walk into a fire to save people and risk his own life — then he had the strength that David had.”
Finally, the day of the transplant surgery had arrived. The procedure lasted for 26 long hours and was performed by a team of 100 professionals.
The risk was enormous and Patrick was given a 50/50 percent chance of survival. Luckily, it was a huge success. Patrick received a new face, scalp, ears, and ear canals. He also received eyelids which allowed him to blink naturally and save his vision.
“Everything in life has a risk,” Patrick told Time Magazine.
“When it’s your time to go, you’ll go—whether you’re walking down the street and get hit by a car or you’re lying on the operating table.”
After he recovered from the swelling and he learned how to talk and swallow again, Patrick met his donor’s mother. Nancy only had one request, to kiss Patrick on the forehead.
“I said, ‘Can I kiss your forehead?’” Nancy said. “That’s the one thing I wanted to do because every night before David went to bed when he was little, I kissed his forehead.”
“I’ve been waiting a year to meet her. I’m just very grateful,” Patrick added. “Without her, it wouldn’t have been possible. It’s like she’s family. We connected that easily.”
Ever since the surgery, Patrick is taking anti-rejection drugs that prevent his immune system from rejecting the face, but he’s thriving. He didn’t only receive a new face but a new life too.
Today, he is divorced and is working on a book which he hopes would serve as an inspiration to anyone who believes there is no way out from the situation they have found themselves in. “Because I want to show the world that you can have hope. I wouldn’t want people that were like me years ago to think that’s it, I have to live like this. You don’t. You can accomplish anything,” Patrick says.
His survival and his recovery are dubbed miraculous. Thanks to Nancy, Dr. Rodriguez and his team, and Patrick’s strong will, today, he is a happy man.
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