Hamilton Beach Brands Holding Company is an American designer, marketer and distributor of
home appliances
A home appliance, also referred to as a domestic appliance, an electric appliance or a household appliance, is a machine which assists in household functions such as cooking, cleaning and food preservation.
Appliances are divided into three ty ...
and commercial
restaurant
A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...
equipment marketed primarily in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, including blenders,
mixers, toasters,
slow cooker
A slow cooker, also known as a crock-pot (after a trademark owned by Sunbeam Products but sometimes used generically in the English-speaking world), is a countertop electrical cooking appliance used to simmer at a lower temperature than othe ...
s, clothes irons, and
air purifier
An air purifier or air cleaner is a device which removes contaminants from the air in a room to improve indoor air quality. These devices are commonly marketed as being beneficial to allergy sufferers and asthmatics, and at reducing or eliminating ...
s.
Until sometime in the 1980s the company's products were marketed under the brand name "Hamilton Beach Scovill", reflecting a merger that occurred in 1923. In 1990, the company merged with
Proctor Silex
Proctor Silex Co. was created in 1960 with the merger of Proctor Electric and the Silex Company. In 1988, Proctor Silex was acquired by NACCO Industries, Inc. In 1990, NACCO also acquired Hamilton Beach Brands as a subsidiary and merged the tw ...
, another household appliance manufacturer. Key market competitors include
Cuisinart
Cuisinart ( ) is an American home appliance brand owned by Conair Corporation. The company was started in 1971 by Carl Sontheimer to bring an electric food processor to the U.S. market. The "Food Processor" was the first model, introduced at a f ...
,
Black & Decker
Black+Decker Inc. is an American manufacturer of power tools, accessories, hardware, home improvement products, home appliances and fastening systems headquartered in Towson, Maryland, north of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, where the company was o ...
,
Salton,
De'Longhi
De'Longhi S.p.A. () is an Italian small appliance manufacturer based in Treviso, Italy.
History and trading
The company was founded by the De'Longhi family in 1902 as a small industrial parts manufacturing workshop. The company incorporated in ...
, and
Sunbeam.
History
Founded in April 1910 by inventor Frederick J. Osius in
Racine, Wisconsin
Racine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River. Racine is situated 22 miles (35 km) south of Milwaukee and approximately 60 ...
, 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
milkshake machine
A milkshake machine or drink mixer is a kind of countertop electric mixer used to make milkshakes, flavored milk, frappés, and other blended beverages. Milkshake machines are generally used in ice cream stores and fast food restaurants, and ar ...
, the Cyclone Drink Mixer, introduced in 1910.
[Anne Cooper Funderburg, "Milkshake", in Darra Goldstein, ed., ''The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets'', 2015, , ''s.v.''] 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
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which sep ...
. 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. For a time, the brand was owned by
NACCO Industries
NACCO Industries, Inc. is an American publicly traded holding company, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. Through a portfolio of mining and natural resources businesses, the company operates under three business segments: Coal Mining, North America ...
. The original company continues as the Hamilton Beach side of Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc. Since the 2000s, all of Hamilton Beach's appliances have been manufactured by subcontractors in China.
Products
*
Blender
A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen appliance, kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsion, emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender ...
s
*
Bread machine
A bread making machine or breadmaker is a home appliance for baking bread. It consists of a bread pan (or "tin"), at the bottom of which are one or more built-in paddles, mounted in the center of a small special-purpose oven. This small oven is ...
s
*
Coffeemaker
A coffeemaker, coffee maker or coffee machine is a cooking appliance used to brew coffee. While there are many different types of coffeemakers the two most common brewing principles use gravity or pressure to move hot water through coffee gr ...
s
*
Coffee grinder
A burr mill, or burr grinder, is a mill used to grind hard, small food products between two revolving abrasive surfaces separated by a distance usually set by the user. When the two surfaces are set far apart, the resulting ground material is co ...
s
*
Coffee percolator
A coffee percolator is a type of pot used for the brewing of coffee by continually cycling the boiling or nearly boiling brew through the grounds using gravity until the required strength is reached.
Coffee percolators once enjoyed great popul ...
s
*
Can opener
A can opener (in North American English and Australian English) or tin opener (used in British English) is a mechanical device used to open tin cans (metal cans). Although canning, preservation of food using tin cans had been practiced since ...
s
*
Convection oven
A convection oven (also known as a fan-assisted oven or simply a fan oven) is an oven that has fans to circulate air around food to create an evenly heated environment. The increased air circulation causes a fan-assisted oven to cook food fast ...
s
*
Deep fryer
A deep fryer (also referred to as a deep fat fryer), is a kitchen appliance used for deep frying. Deep frying is a method of cooking by submerging food into oil at high heat, typically between temperatures of .
While commonly used in commercia ...
s
*
Electric kettle
A kettle, sometimes called a tea kettle or teakettle, is a type of pot specialized for boiling water, commonly with a ''lid'', ''spout'', and ''handle'', or a small electric kitchen appliance of similar shape that functions in a self-contained ...
s
*
Electric knives
*
Food processor
A food processor is a kitchen appliance used to facilitate repetitive tasks in the preparation of food. Today, the term almost always refers to an electric-motor-driven appliance, although there are some manual devices also referred to as "food ...
s
*
Ice cream maker
domestic ice cream maker is a machine used to make small quantities of ice cream for personal consumption. Ice cream makers may prepare the mixture by employing the hand-cranking method or by employing an electric motor. The resulting prepar ...
s
* Indoor grills
* Induction cooktops
*
Juicer
A juicer, also known as a juice extractor, is a tool used to extract juice from fruits, herbs, leafy greens and other types of vegetables in a process called juicing. It crushes, grinds, and/or squeezes the juice out of the Juice vesicles, pulp. ...
s
*
Mixers
* Microwave Ovens
*
Oven
upA double oven
A ceramic oven
An oven is a tool which is used to expose materials to a hot environment. Ovens contain a hollow chamber and provide a means of heating the chamber in a controlled way. In use since antiquity, they have been us ...
s
*
Pie iron
A pie iron—also called pudgy pie iron, sandwich toaster, snackwicher, toastie maker, that consists of two hinged concave, round or square, cast iron or aluminium plates on long handles. Its "clamshell" design resembles that of a waffle iro ...
s
* Pizza makers
*
Popcorn maker
A popcorn maker (also called a popcorn popper) is a machine used to pop popcorn. Since ancient times, popcorn has been a popular snack food, produced through the explosive expansion of kernels of heated corn (maize). Commercial large-scale pop ...
s
*
Rice cooker
A rice cooker or rice steamer is an automated kitchen appliance designed to boil or steam rice. It consists of a heat source, a cooking bowl, and a thermostat. The thermostat measures the temperature of the cooking bowl and controls the heat. ...
s
*
Steamers
*
Toaster oven
A toaster is a small electric appliance that uses radiant heat to brown sliced bread into toast.
Types
Pop-up toaster
In pop-up or automatic toasters, a single vertical piece of bread is dropped into a slot on the top of the toaster ...
s
*
Toaster
A toaster is a small electric appliance that uses radiant heat to brown sliced bread into toast.
Types
Pop-up toaster
In pop-up or automatic toasters, a single vertical piece of bread is dropped into a slot on the top of the toaster. ...
s
*
Waffle iron
A waffle iron or waffle maker is a utensil or appliance used to cook waffles.
It comprises two metal plates with a connecting hinge, molded to create the honeycomb pattern found on waffles. The iron is heated and either batter is poured or dou ...
s
References
External links
Hamilton BeachProctor SilexEclectrics all-metal appliancesTrueAir AirCare appliancesBrewStation 'cup-activated' dispensing, carafeless coffeemakerHamilton Beach in Ukraine
{{Authority control
Home appliance brands
Kitchenware brands
Home appliance manufacturers
Manufacturing companies based in Virginia
American companies established in 1910
Electronics companies established in 1910
American brands
Home appliance manufacturers of the United States
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange