Home Preface Bottom

The 10 Most Wanted initiative has now ended and the website is being archived for posterity.
The project partners are grateful to Nesta for funding 10 Most Wanted and thank all those who contributed their knowledge and opinions.
Do keep in touch by visiting the website of the Museum of Design in Plastics at http://www.modip.ac.uk.

Electric hot water bottle

Selected because it is such a bizarre object. We would love to know whose idea it was.

Case number - PHSL : 3

An electric bed warmer in the shape of a traditional hot water bottle. It has an internal heating tube designed by Frank Stanley Spooner.
View more images on the MoDiP site

Designer	Unknown - Wanted
Manufacturer	RA Rothermel
Country	UK
Date	1945 (circa) - Wanted
Dimensions	length 330 mm, width 200 mm
Materials	plastic, Bakelite, PF, phenol formaldehyde
Method	compression moulded
Colour	brown
Inscription	Moulded "BRITISH PATENT NO 561789 RA ROTHERMEL LTD"

Rights: Images on this site are for non-commercial, educational use only. MoDiP has done its utmost to obtain clearance from all IPR holders before adding images to this catalogue, if you believe that any image has been used without permission please contact us on modip@aub.ac.uk.

Join the hunt at: 10mostinvolved

Facebook Feed

Susan Lambert

13/04/14

Electric hot water bottle PHSL : 3 How can such a lack of imagination bring such a smile to my face? Can you find whose sense of humour came up with the idea?

Ian Holdsworth

14/04/14

An electric hot water bottle made by Rothermal Ltd who were a ‘Maker and importer of radio and electrical components and sound apparatus, of Kilburn, London’, and were part of the Rothermal Corporation. See - http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/R._A._Rothermel The bottle has the GB patent number 561789 moulded into the neck. This patent was taken out on February 22nd 1943 by Frank Stanley Spooner Wates. His patent is entitled ‘Improvements in and relating to electric heating devices applicable for bed-warming and the like’ See - http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?FT=D&date=19440605&DB=worldwide.espacenet.com&locale=en_EP&CC=GB&NR=561789A&KC=A&ND=4 This product contains asbestos.

Susan Lambert

15/04/14

Brilliant, Ian and thank you. Have you come across Frank Stanley Spooner Wates before? Can we be confident that he is the designer?

Susan Lambert

15/04/14

The real thing looks like this:

Ian Holdsworth

15/04/14

I have never heard of Frank Stanley Spooner Wates before - but it is a great name. I'm pretty convinced that the patentee is generally the originator/inventor/designer of the product. On 15 Apr 2014, at 17:36, Susan Lambert wrote:

Susan Lambert

15/04/14

Yes, a wonderful name, but he's the patentee of the the heating tube rather than of the exterior of the bottle that looks like squidgy rubber but is actually hard phenol formaldehyde, isn't he?

Ian Holdsworth

16/04/14

Spooner Wates’s patent only relates to the electrical heating element. The Bakelite bottle is not patented.

Susan Lambert

17/04/14

No, not patented - but someone came up with the idea. How can we find out who that was?

Add your comment

Follow on Facebook ...

Case notes