- Russell Hobbs
Russell Hobbs is a manufacturer of household appliances in
Failsworth ,Greater Manchester ,England . [citation|url=http://www.russellhobbs.co.uk/about_us.html|title= About Russell Hobbs|accessdate=2008-08-29|publisher=russellhobbs.co.uk]History
After working with REME in
World War II and leaving in 1947 as a Major, Bill Russell (1920-2006) joinedMorphy Richards and helped to design the pop-uptoaster , the electric iron and thehairdryer . Peter Hobbs (1916 - 2008) also worked for the home appliance manufacturer, Morphy Richards, as manager of theSouth Africa n division of the company. He had returned to the UK, and worked for another company, where he was trying to invent acoffee percolator , with reference to a German patent. In 1952, they invented the world's first automatic coffee percolator, the CP1, with Russell's ingenuity and started the Russell Hobbs company inCroydon . Russell was in charge of product development, and Hobbs was the sales director. Russell'sde facto ultimate safety test for any new product was to "pour half a pint of boiling gravy on it". The company was always in profit from day one.Product range
The company also makes
food processor s, electrickettle s, toasters,vacuum cleaner s, irons,sandwich toaster s,microwave oven s,juicer s, smoothie makers, and electric hobs.Innovations
* The automatic electric kettle K1, invented in October 1955, used a
bi-metallic strip at the rear of the kettle which caused steam to be forced through an aperture in the lid of the strip and this knocked the switch, turning the kettle off.
* In 1960, the K2 kettle was introduced.
* They invented the first kettle with a microchip.Ownership
In 1963, they needed to expand the company to increase production and needed more capital. They were forced to sell the company to
Tube Investments (TI), a conglomerate of electrical appliance brands. Production was moved toWombourne inStaffordshire , where it was shared with Creda and toBlythe Bridge , in a former aircraft factory now owned byIndesit . Russell became technical director of Creda, then managed Turnright. TI sold off their consumer brands, with the company going toPolly Peck , managed byAsil Nadir in the late 1980s. Polly Peck collapsed and Russell Hobbs was bought byPifco based in Failsworth in 1991, then by Salton on June 4th 2001. Pifco, the British manufacturer of appliances such asteasmade s became known as Salton Europe. The parent company,Salton Inc. , is based inLake Forest, Illinois and has a Canadian division inOntario . In March 2002, Salton Europe closed down the Creda factory on the B4176 in Wombourne nearWolverhampton , moving production toChina .William Russell died in February 2006.
Peter Hobbs died on April 11 2008 aged 91.Fact|date=August 2008
References
External links
* [http://www.russellhobbs.com Russell Hobbs]
* [http://www.unounopods.com uno:uno Coffee maker]
* [http://search.dooyoo.co.uk/search/both/Russell+Hobbs Reviews at DooYoo]
* [http://www.ciao.co.uk/Kettles_5266446_3-russell_hobbs Reviews at Ciao!]
* [http://www.appliancemagazine.com/news_print.php?article=9241&zone=0&first=1 Peter Hobbs celebrates 50 years of the electric kettle]
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/04/db0401.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/03/04/ixportal.html William Russell's obituary]
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