Since time immemorial food has been
an important part of human activity. Food is an integral part of any
celebration, occasion which is associated with joy and merriment. Food can
bring life to any dull moment, is related to have therapeutic effects and turn
on the dullest moods. To get the best of food, any meal it has to be properly
cooked and prepared for flavors and for nutrition.
For the preparation of food to bring
out best flavors, cooking appliance is needed and a fuel on which the appliance
works. The evolution of mankind from prehistoric times to modern age has been
in stages; nomadic life turned in to settlements the discovery of fire,
development of agricultural practices, and invention of metals and thus use of
tools for occupation, protection. As use of metals became widespread, it led to
learning more skills and thus varied occupations. This led to classification of
the society on the basis of occupations which made the society and lives of
people rich.
The industrial revolution in Europe
in the 16th century led to establishment of small and medium size
industries, which gave employment to a large population for operating machines.
As industries grew, machines were used to create products which could further
automate processes or could bring efficiency, productivity in everyday lives.
Automobiles, air-crafts or other modes of transport are a perfect example to
demonstrate how industrial revolution has been beneficial to our lives.
In any industry, the machinery has to
be supplied with energy to operate. The earliest form of supplying energy was
coal, wood which gave the thrust to operate engines, assembly for the
machinery. The use of these traditional fuels needed extremely large amounts of
the fuel and manpower to operate the machines. The main use of traditional fuels
such as hydrocarbons has been for generating electricity which is essential for
any industry. The assembly unit for any process or production needs energy
which is usually in the form of electricity to operate the machinery.
The industrial revolution led to the
development, production of commodities for consumer use. It included consumer
goods for everyday use which increased efficiency in everyday processes. One of
the reasons for advancement of society was use of electricity and electrical
appliances which made processes faster and increased productivity. The use of
electricity led to the development of electrical appliances the earliest being
transistors, iron and other products of domestic use.
The cooking appliance which was
powered by electricity was also a development of the industrial age. One of the
earliest means of cooking was stoves made of mud, clay which used wood or
charcoal for fuel. Since use of wood, charcoal caused pollution and was not
energy efficient it led to the use of electricity and cooking gas as fuels. The
use of electricity and gas needed special equipment on which these fuels could
burn. One of the earliest stoves, cooking appliance was the hot plates which
used either gas or electricity as fuel.
A hot plate is usually a table top
appliance, which has either one or more gas burners or electric heating
elements. The hot plate can either be a standalone device, or sometimes comes
in place of a gas burner in a cooking range or a stove top. Hotplates are most
used in place where a full cooking range is not possible, as hotplates are
handy enough to be moved around. Most of the hotplates that are used in current
times are powered by electricity, but the earliest used in 19th and
20th century were usually powered by gas
