However, it wasn’t until after the First World War, when American
manufacturers could finally reclaim their businesses from bleak but
necessary war work, he was able to really begin. He knew his home mixer
would have to be made from the highest quality materials, that it would
have reliable mechanical workings, and, in his inimitable forward-thinking
way, that it would look good. In 1919, it was ready. When it was
launched, the KitchenAid Hobart model H-5 caused a sensation. With his
insistence on quality, only four machines a day were made in his
Springfield, Ohio factory.
During the following decade, he worked tirelessly on refining the mixer
because his ambition for the next model was that it should be made to the
same exacting standards but at a price everyone could afford. The
stunning, elegant model G, launched in 1927, made the company’s fortune,
selling 10,000 every year for the next three years.
The devastating effects of the Depression in the 1930s called for even
cheaper models. So, in 1936, Johnston employed the fantastic design skills
of Egmont Arens, also editor of Creative Arts magazine, and society rag
Vanity Fair. His flair combined with the uncompromising quality of the
KitchenAid
®
mixer, produced three new K-models. The “K” won awards,
became a design museum must-have, and in 1955, when it was produced
in a range of colours, it put the world of white goods in a spin and
America fell in love with Sunny Yellow, Island Green, Satin Chrome,
Antique Copper and Petal Pink.
Designed at a time when the United States was fizzing with energy, when
American manufacturers led the way in making state-of-the-art machinery,
KitchenAid has kept its legendary number one position in both professional
and domestic kitchens. The brand’s continuing - and unique - ability to
combine beauty with the latest innovations in technology make it, still, the
most coveted range of kitchen appliances in the world.
It is 1908, the year the Harvard Business School is established, William C
Durant founds the company that will eventually be General Motors, Henry
Ford produces the Model T, and Ohio-based engineer Herbert Johnston
begins his own work on developing a commercial mixer that will transform
the baker’s backbreaking, laborious art.
It took Johnston six long years to get his first mixer to market. The Hobart
model H, launched in 1914, was an immediate commercial
success. With a massive 75-litre capacity, bakers’ lives were
changed forever, making light work of the mixing and kneading
that used to be done by hand. As well as the established
bakery chains who invested in the machine, in 1917, the US
Navy installed the monster mixer in the galleys of its entire
fleet of ships. Not one to stand still, Johnston saw the
enormous potential of what he had produced, and put his fine
engineering mind to work developing a smaller but just as
efficient mixer for the cook in the domestic kitchen.
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