Early 1970's Goblin Teasmade

In the house of tomorrow there would be robots to clean your car, shine your shoes and dress your children. And of course, there would be an automatic machine to wake you up in the morning with a horrible buzzing sound and a freshly made cup of tea!

There should be a tray that goes on the front of the Teasmade. Mine was lost somewhere.

Goblin Teasmade Model 835

This was the dream of many inventors beginning in the late Victorian Era when contraptions involving timers and gas rings of flame and pressurized containers of hot water first appeared, and one was expected to put them on your bedside table and then go to sleep. Of course! Anything for progress.

A clock that makes tea

At the Value Village near Polo Park in Winnipeg I found a Teasmade Model 835. When I first saw it I was flummoxed. What was this thing? It appeared to be a clock and a kettle made by a company called Goblin! We took it home and plugged it in for tea.

Teasmade De Luxe

The main dial has a pleasing clunk to it.

The Teasmade can do four things; five! Five things! It can tell time, provide light, make tea at a preset time (AUTO), and make tea right away (TEA NOW) and it can be OFF.

Goblin Teasmade Clock

The hands of the clock are painted with glowing green paint; possibly radioactive. It is perfectly quiet and can rest next to your sleeping head, though when the alarm goes the buzzing is totally deafening.

The back of the Teasmade where the water is boiled.

How the Teasmade works; fill the kettle to the top where it says WATER LEVEL inside. This will be about 2 pints or 1.2 litres of water. Then twist on the clunky lid with a very strong hand and place it on the little platform on the back of the unit. This platform will click down with the weight of the water. Then plug in the plug, made by Nettle and turn the dial to TEA NOW for immediate refreshment, or AUTO for the thing to fire up when the alarm is set. Don't forget to place some tea bags in the tea pot and place it on its little platform next to the kettle. It has a black plunger that senses when the pot is there or not and thus prevents shooting boiling water all over your drowsy head. It takes about ten minutes to boil the water. There is a small hole in the lid of the kettle to prevent the whole thing from building up too much pressure and exploding and it acts like a mini geyser projecting steam in a little jet about a foot high. Pleasing! The curved pipe shoots boiling water into the waiting tea pot until the kettle gets too light to hold down the spring and the platform clicks back up and shuts off the power to it. About 400ml of water is left in the kettle as the delivery tube does not reach down to the bottom. Why would the device ask for 1.2 litres of water and then only use 2/3 of it? The tea pot was also 2/3rds full when the machine was finished doing its thing. The same alarm buzzer sounds when the kettle is switched off in its automatic way. What a racket! It is fun to watch though. A little British Tea Robot working for you.

Huge business like plug to power the kettle. 

Tiny hole in the lid of the kettle to shoot steam

Fill it up to the water level.

Burly looking cloth (polyester) covered cable.

A short cable goes from the unit to the kettle.

Curved kettle spout to fire water into the tea pot.

The kettle is never touched once turned on. You just leave it and it puts the boiling water in the pot for you.

Nettle plastic (Bakelite?) plug for the Teasmade Kettle

When the boiling water shoots in to the tea pot, it does not splash at all. Good!

The glaze of the tea pot has pleasing cracks on it. Crazing is the technical term.

Plug for Teasmade Kettle

Goblin Teasmade Model 835

The alarm volume seems to be a placebo. The noise ranges from loud to deafening and is adjusted with a tight plastic knob that needs a screwdriver to move. The Hand Set knob is to set the clock time. It is directly behind the kettle and will burn your hand if you try to set the time after recently making tea.

The Kettle platform on the back of the Teasmade

The safety plug that is depressed by the ceramic tea pot.

Bayonet plug for the light bulb. One of two inside the Teasmade.

Nice pebbled metal surface of the Goblin Teasmade kettle

TEA NOW!

Front of the Goblin Teasmade. The Alarm dial only goes to the right, and makes the alarm hand go counter clockwise.

Bottom of the Teasmade. Sort of a paper like material.

Bottom of the Teasmade Kettle.

Inside the Teasmade Kettle you can see the heating coil.

Goblin Teasmade White ceramic Tea Pot with Circular black lid.

The tea pot is nice and doesn't dribble like other pots.

Ceramic crazing on the bottom inside of the tea pot.

GOBLIN made in England

Dusty light bulb inside the Teasmade

Teasmade light bulb. Cryselco M8 15W Sign, made in England

Not sure if you can get these bayonet Cryselco bulbs anymore.

Top view of the Goblin Teasmade

The red GOBLIN light glows when the dial is set to TEA NOW

Nice grille at the back to vent the light bulb.

A nice cup of tea with the Goblin Teasmade.

When the lights are on, the top of the Teasmade case glows as well. A bit of a design flaw since it shows the plastic mold shape within. 

Older Goblin Teasmades from the 30's and 40's. I wish I had one with a frilly lamp!

The 1970's Teasmade seems to be made to go on a night stand in between two beds because it has one light on either end of it. Old fashioned married couple sleeping in two separate single beds? Probably.

These contraptions were popular after the War, and became a bit of a fad in the late 60's and into the 70's, but then suddenly fell out of favour. Possibly the hurried pace of the 80's had no time for tea in bed. Tea and coffee were chugged in the kitchen and then you ran out the door to the office. This is all a guess. If anyone remembers what the zeitgeist of the Goblin Teasmade was, then please let us know.

Goblin Teasmade Model 815. Made 1969 to the 1970's.

Goblin Teasmade Model 855. Slightly different to the 835.

From:

Emotionally Durable Design: "Objects, Experiences and Empathy"

 By Jonathan Chapman

Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics

 By Michael Rabige

The Teasmade is used as a teaching device in a book about directing. Interesting!

Goblin also made Vacuum Cleaners. I should say, Goblin started making Vacuum Cleaners and then apparently branched out into making bedside clock powered automatic tea making devices. I wonder what else Goblin made? I can not find much online about the company.

A Goblin Vacuum Cleaner

A song about Goblin Vacuum Cleaners.

"Here Comes That Goblin. Fox-trot, written and composed by John P Long | © Courtesy of Sheridan Hudson, www.teasmade.com

Here comes that Goblin, / He's the chap you must have heard about, / Dirt and dust are quickly put to rout / When the Goblin cleans your home. /

Here comes that Goblin, / In the corners he will poke his head, / You will find the Demon Dust is dead / When the Goblin cleans your home. /

Your day's work well done, / And heaps of time for fun. / Here comes that Goblin, / British Gentleman all through and through, / Work and worry don't exist for you / When the Goblin cleans your home."