The Development Of Modern Kitchens Throughout The Years
The development of modern kitchens throughout the years owes much to the efforts undertaken to streamline work processes in the home and in various industrial processes. Also, improvements in home appliance technologies over the last few centuries has brought us to the point where today’s kitchen can be something that appears as if it stepped out of the latest science fiction film.
Industrialization, owing to the Industrial Revolution and the improvements in equipment in commonplace items such as stoves, plumbing and the like provided the first direct impetus to the modernization of the kitchen. And though the upper classes benefited from kitchens in the’th and’th centuries that were not all that different in basic design from the ones today, the lower classes certainly did.
As always with anything created for the upper classes — which stoves, refrigerators and other kitchen items certainly were — the technologies, as they became more common, became less expensive to own which also meant they could be purchased by more people in more socioeconomic classes. Stoves, refrigerators and other kitchen items meant that a separate room could be created for a kitchen in any home.
Concurrently with the work done to improve home technologies, efforts undertaken to bring plumbing (meaning running water) to the typical home along with natural gas and electricity meant that many cities in the late’th century began to see improvements in stoves and refrigerators and the way they were manufactured. Stoves that could be heated via natural gas soon replaced coal-fired stoves.
It was still the case, though, that many areas in the United States all the way up through the first third of the’00s were not able to access indoor plumbing, electricity or natural gas, especially in more rural areas. Today, we take for granted these basic necessities which were not available to our forebears, meaning that today’s modern kitchen was still off in the distance back then.
Efforts undertaken by industrial engineers to streamline work processes had a direct impact on the development of a modern way of designing kitchens. These small galley-type kitchens that consisted of a stove, a refrigerator and a kitchen sink packed into a small space were designed to make it possible to prepare foods in much less time which meant that women could spend more time at the factory.
These efforts — which were treated with no small amount of scorn by many women of the day, at least initially — played a great role in the improvement in kitchen design layouts and the equipment such as refrigerators and stoves that goes into those designs. Modernized kitchens made food preparation easier and led to more attractive kitchens starting in the mid-20th century.
Nowadays, modern kitchens usually bear little resemblance to kitchens from even 50 years ago at least in terms of the efficiency and modernity of the appliances in the design of the room in which these appliances reside. Utilization of space is more efficient and effective than ever before, though we tend not to give the kitchen more than a passing thought no matter how vital it really is in our lives.
Matthew Kerridge is an expert in home improvements. If you want more information about modern kitchens or are searching for a trusted kitchen online retailer please visit http://www.wrenkitchens.com
