Col. Crompton
Colonel Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton (1845–1940) helped to popularize the use of electricity in the home. He set up a firm that made electrical products including the world’s first electric toaster.
After an early career in the army and bit of time working for an engineering firm Col. Crompton set up his own company in Chelmsford, Essex. By the 1880s Crompton & Company was producing a variety of electrical items, including dynamos, switch gears and arc lamps, many of which Col. Crompton had helped to design. This was very new technology. Early electrical schemes tended to be limited to lighting large public buildings and Crompton worked on a number of these, for example at Kings Cross Station.
Col. Crompton had the imagination to recognize that electricity could transform the domestic environment, but only if electricity could be supplied in a reliable and safe way. In 1887 Crompton built a power station at Kensington Court, an up-market housing development in London. As with many new technological developments there were a few early adopters but most people took a while to catch on and it was decades before electricity became standard in ordinary homes. The delay wasn’t simply down to the lack of infrastructure or the cost of electrical goods. There were also anxieties to overcome. During the early 20th century Col. Crompton helped to remove many of these obstacles, for instance he worked closely with the Electrical Association of Women, a group that explained the benefits of electricity in the home.
As for his toaster, it was called the Eclipse and produced in 1893. It doesn’t sound like it was the most successful product. It only toasted one side of the bread at a time and the heating elements tended to break, but you have to admire Col. Crompton’s vision. To find out more about the history of toasters go to the on-line toaster museum.
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