2.

1 INTRODUCTION Wet grinder is a household appliance used for preparing batter, out of which idlis and dosas are prepared. Rice and dhal are the main raw materials used in the preparation of the batter. Idlis and dosas are the common Tiffin items in South India. These are becoming famous in North India also. These items are taken along with many side dishes such as chutneys, sambar and other nonvegetarian items. Before the invention of the mechanical wet grinders hand operated grinding stones were used for making this batter. Till then many different types were invented by introducing different attachments for making it user friendly. Many engineering and fabrication units functioning in and around Coimbatore had started manufacturing wet grinders. Foundries mechanical fabrication units and electroplating units in and around Coimbatore supported this cluster for its development. The mixer is equipment which saves a lot of our time and labor. It can grind dry masala and make chutney or even lassie very quickly. The aim of a Television system is to extend the sense of sight beyond its natural limits and to transmit sound associated with the scene. The picture signal

is generated by a TV camera and sound signal by a Microphone. The two carrier frequencies are suitably spaced and their modulation products radiated through a common antenna. As in radio communication each television station is allotted different carrier frequencies to enable selection of desired station at the receiving end. Until mid 90s, washing machines were almost non-existent in the Indian market. Today the situation is different. In less than 17 years washing machines are probably the third most popular electrical appliances in Indian homes after television and refrigerators. Even though man power is available in plenty, most women want to avoid the hassles of employing a maid servant to wash their clothes. IT bachelors still utilize human resources for washing, the dhobi wala being the most popular choice for them. But in small family washing machines is pretty much the in thing now. Today we try to just touch upon the various types of washing machines available in the market. Just to create some awareness amongst our readers. As days go by, we would focus on more details and even cover brands involved. There was a time when refrigerators or fridge and a mixer were the only appliances present in ones kitchen. This is slowly changing and the latest buzz

word in Indian homes is Microwave Oven. It has been there in our market for over a decade now. But with the prices coming down and the buying power of middle class families increasing, everyone wants to own one. This article is just an introduction to this gadget. We will cover more on the brands, usage guides in the coming days. To start with, a microwave oven is nothing but a heater which works on the principle of radiation. Inside the device is a small Magnetron which is the source of the microwave radiation. This wave is capable of penetrating solids and causes a heating action which results in food being cooked or heated. You may wonder is it that simple? Yes it is. But as with lots of devices a microwave has its own share of pros and cons. Advanced Power Saving Iron box is a new type of Iron box which is capable of saving power. It saves the power by switching OFF the Iron box while it is not in use. The idle condition of Iron box is detected by two types of sensors. One checks the presence of users hand and the other checks the position of Iron box. The idle time is mainly indicated by the absence of users hand. The time counting circuit checks the sensor states and counts the idle time. The comparator compares whether the counting reached the preset count. If so it automatically cutoff the supply to the Iron box in horizontal position. In the vertical position of Iron box, the circuit waits a little more time to cut off the supply.

An induction cooker transfers electrical energy by induction from a coil of wire into a pot made of material which must be electrically conductive and ferromagnetic. The heat generated is analogous to the unwanted heat dissipated in an electric transformer; most of the heat is due to resistive heating like a transformer's copper losses and eddy currents and the rest is analogous to a transformer's other iron losses. 2.2 WET GRINDER This version of the electric wet grinder was first introduced into the restaurants so that they could cut down on the amount of time that it took for them to prepare these types of food for their guests. However, the product grew in popularity until it was integrated into many households for common everyday use as well. Many of the electric wet grinders that are on the market today still use the two stones to grind down the grains, and the most common (and best) type of stone that is used in these appliances is granite. Now those people working in kitchens everywhere are able to have more time to spare for the more important duties around the household. Plus, this reduction of time allowed for more people to be able to prepare the nutritious, culturally rich foods that they enjoy on a regular basis. It also can be cost effective because of the fact

that the stones that are used in the electric wet grinders do not have to be refinished as often as the old handheld devices did. One thing that you should consider if you are looking to invest in anew wet grinder for your home is that it is a quality product. There are quite a few manufacturers that try to get by using lower quality components and stones to build their grinders, and this can cause a lot of problems and frustrations when you are trying to buy a good, modern wet grinder. Remember to do research on the company you are thinking about buying from before you make your final decision, and check to see if they have a consumer rating and if they are regulated by any type of government agency. The wet grinder is a tool that has been around for many, many years. Originally it was only used in kitchens in Southern India as a means of grinding down wet grains and lentils for specially prepared dishes. The first wet grinders were made out of large rocks and there was a hole carved in the stone. A chuck of circular stone that fit into the hole was fitted with a type of wooden handle. The stone would then fit into the carved out space and the worker would grind on the wet grains using their muscles to push down on the stone while rotating the handle simultaneously. The process of grinding down the water and grain mixture was often tedious and could take a long time. The pastes that the wet grinder produced could be used in foods like dosai, vada, and idli.

However, in recent years the implementation of electricity and the mechanization of the wet grinder led to a revolution in this process in many working class kitchens that utilize this tool. The amount of time that it once took to prepare a meal has been drastically reduced and it has allowed more and more people access to these types of food. The earliest forms of these mass produced items used a sort of mechanism that rotated the two stones against each other with just a minimal amount of turning on the part of the worker, but it could still be a time consuming task. This is probably why many of the foods that relied on the use of a wet grinder for preparation were not introduced to a large number of people outside of Southern India until the electric version of the wet grinder was introduced to the market. The first one of these still relied on the use of stones, only now they were powered by electricity when they rotated. 2.3 MIXER In 1908 Herbert Johnson, an engineer for the Hobart Manufacturing Company, invents an electric standing mixer. His inspiration came from observing a baker mixing bread dough with a metal spoon; soon he was toying with a mechanical counterpart. By 1915, his 80-quart mixer was standard equipment for

most large bakeries. In 1919 Hobart introduced the Kitchen Aid Food Preparer Stand mixer for the home. Like many home appliances, the standing mixer has industrial antecedents. In the 1908, engineer Herbert Johnson was observing a baker mixing bread dough with a metal spoon; soon he was toying with a mechanical counterpart. By 1915, his 80-quart Hobart mixer was standard equipment on all U.S. Navy vessels, as well as in many commercial bakeries. In the early years, retailers were slow to take on the Kitchen Aid mixer. To counter their reluctance, Hobart established a direct sales force made up primarily of women who went door to door offering demonstrations of the new food preparation tool. With the creation of citrus juicer and food grinder attachments in 1919, Kitchen Aid mixers were on the road to becoming the versatile "food preparation tools", as they were subsequently styled. Today's Kitchen Aid stand mixers can be converted to anything from a pasta maker to a sausage stuffer or grain mill with the addition of optional attachments. Kitchen Aid may have been first, but the widespread acceptance of the electric standing mixer actually belongs to a more populist-priced appliance, the Sunbeam Mix Master invented by Ivar Jepson's. The Mix Master caught on like

wildfire. Within six years of its 1930 introduction and at the height of the Depression the company was selling 300,000 Mix Masters a year. Sunbeam put out its first hand-held Mix Master in 1952. Although the Kitchen Aid standing mixer is the current market leader the Sunbeam Mix Master remains a viable rival. 2.4 TELEVISION History on television is a vast enterprise, spanning commercial and public networks, corporate and independent producers. As we rapidly enter the twentyfirst century a significant increase in historical programming exists on television screens throughout the United States mostly in the form of biographies and quasi biographical documentaries which coincides with a marked rise of interest in history among the general population. This introduction will explore some of the parameters and implications of television as historian propose seven general assumptions about the nature of this widespread phenomenon, and end with some concluding observations concerning the enduring relationship between Professional history and popular history as well as the challenges and opportunities this linkage poses for television and history scholarship in the

future. My first and most basic assumption is that television is the principal means by which most people learn about history today. More and more people set up networks until there was a time in 1995-96 when an estimated 60,000 cable operators existed in the country. Some of them had subscriber bases as low as 50 to as high as in the thousands. Most of the networks could relay just 6 to 14 channels as higher channel relaying capacity required heavy investments, which cable operators were loathes making. American and European cable networks evinced interest, as well as large Indian business groups, who set up sophisticated head ends capable of delivering more than 30 channels. These multi-system operators started buying up local networks or franchising cable TV feeds to the smaller operators for a fee. This phenomenon led to resistance from smaller cable operators who joined forces and started functioning as MSOs. The net outcome was that the number of cable operators in the country has fallen to 30,000. Television must be understood and seldom is as the primary way that children and adults form their understanding of the past. Just as television has profoundly affected and altered every aspect of contemporary life from the family to education, government business, and religion the mediums nonfictional and

fictional portrayals have similarly transformed the way tens of millions of viewers think about historical figures and events. The fundamental principles of television were initially explored using electromechanical methods to scan transmit and reproduce an image. As electronic camera and display tubes were perfected, electromechanical television gave way to all-electronic broadcast television systems in nearly all applications At the dawn of television history there were two distinct paths of technology experimented with by researchers. Early inventors attempted to either build a mechanical television system based on the technology of Paul Nipkow's rotating disks; or they attempted to build an electronic television system using a cathode ray tube developed independently in 1907 by English inventor A.A. Campbell-Swinton and Russian scientist Boris Rosing. Electronic television systems worked better and eventual replaced mechanical systems. 2.5 WASHING MACHINE Washing machines made their mark in the Indian market in the eighties. Videocon was the first company in India to introduce washing machines. Over the years, it has remained a market leader, with an overall market share of 35% by adopting flexible strategies, which are

modified as and when the need arises. Initially, the challenge was to wean away home makers from their traditional methods of washing clothes. But then, owing to high prices, the market appeared to be limited only to upper income urban households. T h e 1 99 0s s a w a c h a n g e i n t h e s o ci o - e co no m i c s c e n e i n th e c o un tr y . R a p i d g r o w th , increase in the number of working women, changing life styles and higher aspiration levels with exposure to satellite television and easy consumer finance meant that demand for consumer goods rose phenomenally. Sales of semi-automatics outstrip those that in the fullyautomatic segment. This has beendue to a variety of factors, price being one of them. As semi-automatic washing machines are cheaper than the fully automatic ones. 2.6 MICROWAVE OVEN A microwave oven or a microwave is a kitchen appliance that cooks or heats food by heating. This is accomplished by using microwave radiation to heat water and other polarized molecules within the food. This excitation is fairly uniform, leading to food being adequately heated throughout a feature not seen in any other heating technique. Basic microwave ovens heat food quickly and efficiently, but do not brown or bake food in the way conventional ovens do.

This makes them unsuitable for cooking certain foods, or to achieve certain effects. Additional kinds of heat sources can be added to microwave packaging, or into combination microwave ovens, to add these additional effects. Microwaving food raises several safety issues, as well as reducing risks, such as that afire from high temperature heat sources. 2.7 IRON BOX Ironing is the use of a heated tool an iron to remove wrinkles from fabric. The heating is commonly done to a temperature of 180 to 220Celsius depending on the fabric. Ironing works by loosening the bonds between the long chain polymer molecules in the fibers of the material. While the molecules are hot the fibers are straightened by the weight of the iron, and they hold their new shape as they cool. Some fabrics such as cotton require the addition of water to loosen the intermolecular bonds. Many modern fabrics developed in or after the mid-twentieth century are advertised as needing little or no ironing. Permanent press clothing was developed to reduce the ironing necessary by combining wrinkle-resistant polyester with cotton. The first known use of metal to "iron" clothes however is known to have occurred in China. The electric iron was invented in 1882 by Henry W.Seeley. To

smooth away unwanted creases and crush marks. To make creases where design of the garment require them mould the garment to the contour of the body prepare garment for further sewing refinish the fabric after manufacturing the garment. It is also known as a clothes iron flat iron or smoothing iron. The piece at the bottom is called a sole plate. Ironing is also a heat energy chemical energy, electrical energy and mechanical energy. Most ironing is done on an ironing board, a small, portable, foldable table with a heat resistant surface. Some commercial-grade ironing boards incorporate a heating element and a pedal-operated vacuum to pull air through the board and dry the garment. 2.8 INDUCTION STOVE An induction cooker uses induction heating for cooking. Unlike other forms of cooking heat is generated directly in the pot or pan cooking vessel as opposed to being generated in the stovetop by electrical coils or burning gas. To be used on an induction cooker a cooking vessel must be made of a ferromagnetic metal. In an induction cooker a coil of copper wire is placed underneath the cooking pot. An alternating electric current flows through the coil which produces an oscillating magnetic field. This field induces an electric current in the pot. Current flowing in the metal pot produces resistive heating which heats the food.

While the current is large, it is produced by a low voltage. An induction cooker is faster and more energy efficient than a traditional electric hob. It allows instant control of cooking energy similar to gas burners. Because induction heats the cooking vessel itself, the possibility of burn injury is significantly less than with other methods the surface of the cook top is only heated from contact with the vessel. There are no flames or red hot electric heating elements as found in traditional cooking equipment. The induction effect does not heat the air around the vessel resulting in further energy efficiencies some air is blown through the cook top to cool the electronics but this air emerges only a little warmer than ambient temperature. The time to boil a certain amount of water is inversely proportional to the power a 3,600-watt induction element is three times as fast as a 1,200-watt element. The actual time depends upon the amount of water but it is typically a few minutes. Heating is much faster without water e.g., for stir-frying a thin pan containing three tablespoons of oil may heat up to stir-fry temperature in as little as ten seconds.

2.9 CONCLUSION This chapter explained the popular home appliances used in India. The profile of the company manufacturing home appliances in India namely, Television, Refrigerator, Washing Machine, Radio, Electric iron Box and are also highlighted in detail.