"A two-year-old is kind of like having a blender, but you don't have a top for it."
Jerry Seinfeld, American actor and comedian
Although ubiquitous in modern kitchens, the blender started life as a tool for the soft drinks industry, designed to mix mailed milkshakes. By the 1920s both milkshakes and malted milk drinks were extremely popular. However, malted milk powder was developed as a hot drink and so often clumped together when mixed with cold milk, resulting in a lumpy milkshake. This problem was overcome in 1922 when Stephen Poplawski (1885-1956) invented the blender. His design had small spinning blades, driven by an electric motor, at the bottom of a tall container into which all the ingredients would be added and mixed. The device also resulted in a lighter, frothy drink, forever changing the consistency of milkshakes and at the same time paving the way for the smoothie.
With modifications by Fred Osius and some nifty marketing by Fred Waring, the blender soon found its way into hotels and restaurants and, by the 1950s, was flying into the kitchens of many households.
The blender's uses do not end there. Wherever there is a need to mush things into a puree, you will find a blender. Hospitals, for example, were quick to employ blenders for the preparation of specific diets, and they do not even look out of place in a modern scientific laboratory—Dr. Jonas Salk famously used a blender whilst developing his polio vaccine. More recently, the blender has evolved into a source of entertainment, with the award-winning website, www. willitblend.com, testing the blender's blending limits.
Today the blender is as popular as ever; no health- conscious household would now be without their smoothie-making machine.
