Today, there is a room in our house that can trace its history back to the first open fires which early bands of humans used to cook food over. What you might not know about the kitchen, then, could come as a surprise, especially when it's realized that these fascinating rooms owe some of their development to the need to streamline work on the factory floor.
For most of the history of humans, the room that we look at today and where food is kept, prepared and sometimes eaten, consisted of nothing more than a spot outside the home where an open campfire was kept and food was cooked on. Generally speaking, it was only the wealthy classes in most societies like the Greeks and Romans where a separate room in the home was devoted to food preparation.
Most of the other classes of people in the societies spent more of their effort in earning enough to procure cooking utensils such as pots and pans rather than in trying to build a separate cooking room. It was the Romans, however, who began to look at the problem and built a number of large kitchens for the public where they could bring their food and prepare it.
The lack of the kitchen in the home -- with the exception of the relatively wealthy -- carried on for much of history and most people didn't give it a second thought. For example, Pioneer American colonizers living on the frontier often times had a single room cabin and a fireplace over which food was prepared. They would mark off an area around the fireplace as a kitchen.
Improvement in cook stoves and ranges from those days is just as responsible for the design and eventual form of the kitchen as we know it today, for along with the creation of improved stoves came the ability to bring those stoves into the home. Additionally, the development of modern-day plumbing that brought running water into the home meant a kitchen could be made for most of the common classes.
Like just about anything else that has its origins in initial creation of mass production techniques during the Industrial Revolution, home technologies such as the appliance that go into kitchens soon became ever more common for the lower and middle classes which meant that they could begin to consider setting aside a separate room in the home that could be entirely devoted to food preparation.
Subsequently, engineers working in factories began to look at improving kitchen design in order to enable women to spend less time in their kitchens and more time in the factories. Much of the design concepts in a kitchen today owe their ancestry to these early efforts at streamlining workflow and processes in these very small but highly efficient kitchen workspaces.
Thus -- in conjunction with urbanization and the penetration of gas, water and electrical lines throughout the country in the 20th century -- the kitchen as we know it today became fully possible even for those who were in the lower classes in the country. Soon, every housewife wanted a stove and refrigerator and manufacturers worked hard to make to design rooms where they could be accommodated. - 30289
For most of the history of humans, the room that we look at today and where food is kept, prepared and sometimes eaten, consisted of nothing more than a spot outside the home where an open campfire was kept and food was cooked on. Generally speaking, it was only the wealthy classes in most societies like the Greeks and Romans where a separate room in the home was devoted to food preparation.
Most of the other classes of people in the societies spent more of their effort in earning enough to procure cooking utensils such as pots and pans rather than in trying to build a separate cooking room. It was the Romans, however, who began to look at the problem and built a number of large kitchens for the public where they could bring their food and prepare it.
The lack of the kitchen in the home -- with the exception of the relatively wealthy -- carried on for much of history and most people didn't give it a second thought. For example, Pioneer American colonizers living on the frontier often times had a single room cabin and a fireplace over which food was prepared. They would mark off an area around the fireplace as a kitchen.
Improvement in cook stoves and ranges from those days is just as responsible for the design and eventual form of the kitchen as we know it today, for along with the creation of improved stoves came the ability to bring those stoves into the home. Additionally, the development of modern-day plumbing that brought running water into the home meant a kitchen could be made for most of the common classes.
Like just about anything else that has its origins in initial creation of mass production techniques during the Industrial Revolution, home technologies such as the appliance that go into kitchens soon became ever more common for the lower and middle classes which meant that they could begin to consider setting aside a separate room in the home that could be entirely devoted to food preparation.
Subsequently, engineers working in factories began to look at improving kitchen design in order to enable women to spend less time in their kitchens and more time in the factories. Much of the design concepts in a kitchen today owe their ancestry to these early efforts at streamlining workflow and processes in these very small but highly efficient kitchen workspaces.
Thus -- in conjunction with urbanization and the penetration of gas, water and electrical lines throughout the country in the 20th century -- the kitchen as we know it today became fully possible even for those who were in the lower classes in the country. Soon, every housewife wanted a stove and refrigerator and manufacturers worked hard to make to design rooms where they could be accommodated. - 30289
About the Author:
Matthew Kerridge is an expert in home improvements. If you would like further information about varieties of kitchen or are searching for a trusted kitchen retailer please visit http://www.wrenkitchens.com
