Teasmade

On 19 September 1891, Charles Maynard Walker of Dulwich published details of an "Early Riser's Friend" in Work magazine. Goblin's next model, also invented by Thornton, was patented in 1934 and was manufactured from 1936. This was the first tea-maker sold under the name Teasmade. A patent sketch of 1934 shows the essential features. and at some point the Teasmade trademark passed from Goblin to Swan Housewares Limited, another BSR subsidiary. Archives at the Intellectual Property Office show the mark passed in 1991 from Swan to Moulinex, who had bought Swan and other brands from BSR, and then to Littlewoods Retail Limited in 2001 after the collapse of Moulinex. Littlewoods merged with Shop Direct Group in 2005 and rebranded to The Very Group in 2019. As of 2020 the trademark owner is Littlewoods Limited. == Production ==

The Swan Teasmade D01 made by RBC electronics is no longer in production. The Swan Teasmade STM series has been manufactured in China by Swan Products since October 2009, and is being sold in many UK retailers including John Lewis and Tesco Direct. There are several versions including white, cream and retro-styled models. The Breville Wake Cup automatic teamaker has been manufactured by Breville UK since 2012. Sales of the Micromark Tea Express ceased in the UK when the parent company of Micromark, BDC, went into administration in November 2008. == Collections ==

The largest known collection of teasmades was 172 examples, owned by Sheridan Parsons in Royal Wootton Bassett. == In popular culture ==

In the music video for Queen's "I Want To Break Free", Brian May is awakened by a 1960s Goblin teasmade. The Happy Ever After episode "Tea For Two" featured a malfunctioning gifted Teasmade. In the 1986 Art of Noise single "Paranoimia," an insomniac Max Headroom hears an off-screen ringing sound and wonders if it's his Teasmade, but ultimately ignores it because he "can't stand tea". In the episode of the British sitcom Mr Bean titled "The Trouble With Mr Bean", the title character, played by Rowan Atkinson, uses a 'Heath Robinson' style adapted teasmade to wake himself up out of bed by piping the boiling water onto his toes. In episode 6, 'February', of Edwardian Farm (of the BBC historic farm series), Peter Ginn purchases a Victorian/Edwardian Era Teasmade, as one of a number of inventions of the time period. In Season 3, Episode 2 of ITV series Endeavour (2016), a Goblin Teasmade figures prominently as the source of an explosion which kills a person. In S1 E2 of The Kennedys (2015, BBC), instead of proposing marriage to Jenny, Tim offers to buy her a Teasmade. Richard Osman's House of Games, a British quiz show that first aired in 2017, offered a teasmade personalised with Osman's silhouette as a prize on Thursdays in series 1 and 2.{{cite web|url=https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/showbiz-tv/richard-osmans-house-games-set-13930367|title=Richard Osman's House of Games set to return to BBC The 1986 Robert Barnard short story Breakfast Television features a Teasmade as the murder weapon. == See also ==