When did the electric oven come into use?
The first ELECTRIC OVEN was installed at the Hotel Bernina in Samaden, Switzerland in 1889. No record survives of the inventor. but The Electric reported, in August of that year, that it contained German silver resistance coils, and that it had been found capable of performing all the normal cooking operations. The Hotel Bernina had its own electric power-supply generated from a dynamo driven by a waterfall. As a good deal of power was going to waste during the day, the proprietor hit upon the idea of utilizing the current for cooling when it was not required for lighting.
The first electric oven produced for sale was manufactured by the Carpenter Electric Heating Manufacturing Co. of St Paul, Minn., in 1891. It was described by the New York trade journal The Electrical Engineer as follows: “The baking oven is 18 inch long, 14 inch high, and 12 inch deep, made of well-seasoned white pine, lined with asbestos felt, and bright tin. There are two sheet-iron shelves in each oven, and also two resistance plates on the bottom and one on the top, connected with a switch on the outside of the oven, so that two temperatures may be obtained. “These ovens have a small glass windows in each door, so that the baking can be watched. Each resistance plate consumes about five amperes on 110 volts, and it has been found that it only requires from 12-15 minutes, at a maximum temperature to heat the oven to 250°F, The current can then be turned off and the baking continued.”
