When was the electric kettle invented?

The first electric kettle is thought to have been invented by Compton and Co. in 1891. Inventors struggled with creating an efficient electric kettle until 1922 when a kettle with an internal heating element was invented by the Swan Company.

Electric kettles started out as a luxury only affordable for the rich in the Victorian era, but became attainable by the wider public in the 1920s. The first modern electric kettle with the ability to switch off by itself when the water boiled was invented by Bill Russell and Peter Hobbs in 1955. This feature made the electric kettle much more popular.