The Lost History of Waffle Irons

Waffle irons. Those lovely tools that bake crispy, golden waffles. From the days of the Romans and their long handled ancestors to the modern plug in and play pick your shape electric irons, these have been bringing us waffles for eons.

But they have a missing link in their history.

To start, a Google search will bring up many delightful blogs about the history of waffles and waffle irons. Each look through has two common notations: Thomas Jefferson arriving from France with a set of long handled waffle irons in 1789 and Cornelius Swartwout’s “Waffle Iron,” patented August 24, 1869 – the “modern” waffle iron.

In reading a bit deeper, you find that Swartwout’s patent isn’t a patent FOR a waffle iron in as much as an IMPROVEMENT on a waffle iron. Which means there were stove top waffle irons PRIOR to the improvement. Curious…

In the span of 80 years between Jefferson’s long handled irons and Swartwout’s patent the waffle iron evolved into a short handled stovetop model. But when did this evolution occur?

The digging commenced. Cue the montage music!

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First – to create a baseline for waffle irons we have to look at their kitchen counterpart – the cook stove.

Prior to 1800, American homes had open hearths in which food was cooked. Brick lined, temperamental in maintaining temperature, these hearths were smokey and functioned as the main heat of the house as well.

They looked a bit like this:

Hearths were common place until Count von Rumford crafted some technology for fireplaces that dealt with the movement of air and heat and stuff (I don’t quite understand it). He invented a “modern” range that separated the cooking and heating functions in the 1790s. From there, evolution continued until we arrive at the modern offspring that reside within our homes, though the details seem rather vague in searching (similar to the 80 year of waffle irons…).

The quest for further details began.

Chronicling America was searched (they have a BAZILLION newspapers!) with a notation in 1792 for an upcoming expo hosted Pennsylvania Society for Encouragement of Manufactures. “To fuch perfon as fhall make and exhibit the beft fpecimen of Stoves of caft iron…” (Believe it says: To much perfection as shall make and exhibit the best specimen of stoves of cast iron…1700s and early 1800s had some weird spelling… ) Assumption that this was a call for entries for a cook stove, though it could be a stove that was a heater only. The listing doesn’t specify.

Small notations in 1794 -1799 for cast iron stoves, for sale, best use, a foundry going out of business. Nothing super notable in articles, nor in what a stove might be in these scenarios. (Waffle irons also follow this trend. LOADS of merchants selling them, but no descriptors, only waffle iron or waffle & wafer irons. Assumption lends toward the long handled style.)

In 1815, an early patent for a cook stove made by C. Postley arrives. (Cast iron stove patents show up as early as 1793 with general stove patents – which could be cooking or heating stoves – but the information is lacking. In 1811 there is a patent for a kitchen stove, a cooking stove in 1812, another kitchen stove in 1813, so Postley’s isn’t the earliest stove.)

A year later and one of the earliest ads for a stove arrives – Postley’s Patent Cooking Stove in print – 1816!

Another ad for a another stove Baer & Co’s Improved Patent Cooking Stoves is found in 1818. (The ad also mentions Franklin [1740s] and 10 plate stoves [1760s] for sale.) From there ads for Gleason’s Patent Cooking Stove in 1819, James & Cornell’s Stove Factories in the 1820s followed, with the 1830s -1850s having a huge surge in patents for cook stoves. The “modern” stove had arrived! (The 1830s also saw the invention of gas stoves, though they didn’t start arriving in homes until the 1860s.)

From their early arrival in the early 1800s, stoves grew into big, ornate pieces of furniture that dominated the kitchen and by the turn of the century (1900) stoves were in nearly every home. Gas transitioned into electric in the 1920s. Coal phased out, and stoves grew more trim and streamlined, wedging between cabinets in the 30s. Curves transitioned into crisp edges, stoves grew smaller and ovens larger. Colors transitioned into white, then modern stainless. Glass-ceramic tops landed in the 1970s – the precursors to glass top stoves. Induction cooking was adopted into homes in the 70s, (it was introduced in 1933 at the World’s Fair and demonstrated throughout the 50s, not catching on for home use until the 70s!)

Here’s a bit of stove & kitchen evolution:
(All found in various vintage stove catalogues, remodeling brochures, newspapers.)

I digress. (But it is rather delightful to see the evolutions kitchens have had!)

Stoves solidly started to arrive into kitchens in 1820, which means all of the cooking vessels once used on a hearth – 3 legged skillets, pots with legs and handles and long handled waffle irons etc – naturally evolved for use on the stove at the same time.

Which means waffle irons were “modernized” prior to 1869. (And if you recall from this post the “modern” waffle iron patent was actually an improvement on a waffle iron, not the invention of one.)

Deeper digging commences.

We know between the 1820s and 1850s the patents for stoves amplified and modern households transitioned out of hearths and into stove units. Which means someone def realized the long handled design of a waffle iron wasn’t going to work over one of the eyes of the stove without sticking haphazardly into the space of the kitchen. Cue the evolution!

Though the exact pinpoint of this transition (and its creator) are quite hard to find. A newspaper blurb in 1804 mentioned soft & hard waffle irons. Waffle and wafer irons blurbs are found afterwards, with these mostly likely being long handled hearth versions.

A notation for the arrival of 100 pr. (pairs?) of Lewis’s waffle irons is found in 1829. Patrick Lewis was noted in making coffee mills – no mention of waffle irons. In 1831 Charles Parker bought a plot of land and began to manufacture coffee mills & waffle irons. (Are these waffle irons designed the same as the blurb on the 100 pr Mr. Parker had formerly worked for Mr. Lewis…?)

A deviation brings you through the evolution of Mr. Parker’s businesses (from coffee mills to hinges and vises, to lamps and the renowned Parker Brother’s Shotguns) though doesn’t divulge any visuals on the waffle irons. Drat.

Back into the search.

• 1840 has a blurb for waffle irons, fancy and plain.
• 1842 has an announcement for hollow ware, with waffle irons as one of the assorted items offered from Moore & Stewart.
• 1846 “Waffle Irons for Stoves and Ranges” – with a notation of new patterns just received
• 1847 Greydon’s has a blurb for “patent revolving waffle irons” – posted March 7th…
• 1848 blurb for celebrated “Revolving Waffle Bakers”
• another 1848 blurb for revolving waffles posted in January
• 1850 blurb: “Revolving Patent Waffle Irons, a new article, just from Connecticut”
• 1851 blurb for waffle irons in English & American patterns
• another posting in 1851 for waffle irons in “old & new style”

In 1853 a patent for a waffle iron design arrives. The patent sheet has a cool handwritten description of the ornamental design for the waffle iron, submitted by Nathaniel Waterman in June/July of 1853. The drawing for the design isn’t on the best copied version, but you can see what the waffle iron (he calls it a waffle baker) looks like.

Now if we go off the first mention of a revolving waffle iron in 1847, that means 22 years PRIOR to the 1869 “modern” patent waffle irons had grown out of their long handles and gained their happy perspectives on top of the stove.

Where that exact evolution happened in the lifespan of waffle irons – from long handled “reins” to short skillet style handles is unknown though it does seem to arrive hand in hand with stoves evolving from hearth beasts.

Here’s to the lost history of waffle irons!