
Responding to the English fondness for tea, William Thornton made a patent application for an automatic tea maker in 1933. Named Teasmade, it sounded an alarm clock, turned on the lights, boiled water and brewed a pot of tea at your bedside. As advertised in England in 1954, Teasmade “means a cheery, cozy cup of freshly made tea in bed everyday of the year.”