Gadgets and Necessities: An Encyclopedia of Household Innovations (reupload)

This compilation of appliances and their underlying principles is a valuable examination of twentieth-century technology and the relief of home drudgery. To express the importance of gadgetry and home time-savers, the authors append a 28-page introduction that beautifully summarizes the shift in thinking about homes, food preparation, cleanliness, and lifestyles. Of particular interest is a summary of women's liberation from responsibility for the world's mess.
The book's 190 entries range over a broad spectrum, from the lowly kettle and sandwich toaster to the Jacuzzi, modem, plastics, Pyrex, and Tefal nonstick surfacing. Entry length varies from two paragraphs on Trouser presses and five on Barbecues to more than two pages on Do-it-yourself and ten on Computers . Coverage is ample, although the absence of entries on water purifiers, icemakers, and bottled water is surprising in view of the inclusion of such low-priority items as Atari and virtual pets. Convenience foods should have included baby food and infant formula.

The text covers a number of important contributors to domestic manufacture, notably S. W. Farber, Inc., A. F. Dormeyer (developer of the electric Household Beater in 1927), the Maytag Corporation, and RCA. The brief histories of Sears, Roebuck; Tupperware; and Kmart are essential to an understanding of how and where household innovations are marketed. Layout and fonts are attractive and accessible. Running heads, cross-referencing, and sources for each entry increase the book's value to historians, students, designers, journalists, feminists, and reference librarians. The authors conclude with an adequate five-page bibliography, a list of 53 designers, and a glossary of 86 technical terms, most of which are related to electronics.