Hamilton Beach Brands

Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc.
Subsidiary
Founded April 1910
Founder Frederick J. Osius
Headquarters Glen Allen, Virginia, U.S.[1]
Area served
 North America
Products Home appliances
Parent NACCO Industries
Subsidiaries Proctor Silex
Website www.hamiltonbeach.com

Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc. is an American manufacturer of home appliances, air purifiers, and commercial restaurant equipment marketed primarily in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, including blenders, mixers, toasters, slow cookers, clothes irons, and air purifiers.

Until sometime in the 1980s the company's products were marketed under the brand name "Hamilton Beach Scovill", reflecting a merger that occurred in the 1940s. In 1990, the company merged with Proctor Silex, another household appliance manufacturer. Key market competitors include Cuisinart, Black&Decker, Salton, De'Longhi, and Sunbeam.

History

Founded in April 1910 by inventor Frederick J. Osius in Racine, Wisconsin, the Hamilton Beach Manufacturing Company took its name from two men Osius hired, Louis Hamilton and Chester Beach. He hired Hamilton as the new company's advertising manager, and Beach to work as a mechanic. Osius did not care for his own name, so he paid Hamilton and Beach $1000 each for the right to use their names instead. The company mostly sold products that Osius had invented and patented, but Chester Beach had invented a high-speed fractional motor in 1905, which the company used in many of its products. Osius designed the agitator implement for the company's first drink mixer, the Cyclone, introduced in 1911. Hamilton and Beach left the company in 1913 to form their own firm, Wisconsin Electric Company. Osius sold Hamilton-Beach to Scovill Manufacturing in 1922 and moved to Millionaires' Row in Miami Beach.[2] The Hamilton Beach drink mixer, with its characteristic spindle and metal container, was found at soda fountains of drug stores throughout North America. Other products included stand mixers (for making batter), fans, and hair dryers. The spindle drink mixer was expanded in the 1930s to enable multiple milk shakes to be processed at once. The original company continues as the Hamilton Beach side of Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc.

The electric vibrator was patented by Victor Electric Company June 24, 1902 (patent number 703100). Hamilton Beach purchased or licensed this patent and sold a large number of electric vibrators under the name "Hamilton Beach" and "Try-New-Life". All of them are stamped with "Patented June 24, 1902, other patents pending".[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc.". Hoover's. Retrieved 2011-11-07.
  2. ↑ "Celebrating 175 years: 'Vibrator Capitol of the World'". Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  3. ↑ "An example Hamilton Beach Vibrator". Retrieved 2009-10-07.

External links