The Blender In Your Home: However Did That Happen?

What connection does the modern blender have with a famous American bandleader?

In 1910, Fred Osius, L.H.Hamilton and Chester Beach formed the Hamilton Beach Manufacturing Company. Osius held the patent for the blender although his was not the first one created. He did not have the money to thrust his new invention into the marketplace. He knew that gadgets always fascinated Fred Waring, who had achieved fame with his big band, Fred Waring and The Pennsylvanians and that Waring had the money to indulge in his hobbies.

One night, after a radio broadcast at New York’s Vanderbilt Theater, Osius talked his way into Waring’s dressing room and pitched his idea. Waring agreed to fund his research but six months and $25,000 later, there were still blender problems. Waring then dumped Osius and redesigned the blender himself. The result was the “Miracle Mixer Blender,” which sold for $29.75, and was introduced to the public at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago. In 1938, Waring renamed his Miracle Mixer Corporation to the Waring Corporation, and the mixer’s name was officially changed to the Waring Blender.

Waring once said that this mixer “will revolutionize American drinks” and he was right. He could not have imagined, however that the blender would be used inn hospitals for the implementation of special diets and research. Dr. Jonas Salk used it while developing the vaccine for polio.

So the next time you blend or pulse, stop for a moment and think about how much easier your life is because of this machine that asks nothing of you and sits quietly on your kitchen counter. Maybe you should consider even saluting it once, just to show it a bit of the respect it deserves.