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3) Hot Plates

While chaffing dishes may not have changed much since the 1800s the hot plate certainly has. This skillet hot plate burner isn’t flat, but rather has the pan already built-in. This model is powered by alcohol instead of electricity.

Via/ Library of Congress

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Hot plates today are much more versatile and can accommodate a variety of vessels as long they are stovetop ready.

Via/ Flickr

2) Kitchen Multi-appliances

100 years ago the combination appliance wasn’t plugged in at all, but used fuel to make sure breakfast went smoothly. It looks simple enough, although we can’t imagine that tilted skillet area to be much fun to operate.

Via/ Library of Congress

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Today’s “breakfast stations” do a lot more with a lot less work than their 1910s predecessors.

Via/ Amazon

1) Refrigerators

From the icebox to the refrigerator, the path for fresh food at our fingertips 24/7 was not a fast one. Many different types of food preservation devices were tried before the more efficient modern fridges were made.

This style from 1919 looks almost like a curio cabinet with its glass panels that let you see inside. However, the condenser appears to take up about half of the space inside the unit.

Via/ Wiki Commons

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The refrigerators of today fit a lot into the space they use with convenient drawers, slots, and shelves. They don’t look as much like furniture as this old ones do, but that is a small price when we consider just how much more food can be stored in a modern refrigerator.

Via/ Flickr
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