As fewer and fewer families could afford domestic servants, more and more appliances were designed to perform servicing roles. One of these was a device to make the early morning cup of tea.

The principle of the Teasmade has remained the same since the first patent was filed in 1852, except that now electricity, not gas, is used. The tea-making apparatus boils water in a specially designed kettle, and once boiled, the water is forced through a tube by steam pressure into a teapot.

Goblin is a very well-known manufacturer of Teasmades, which were first developed by the company in the early 1930s. However, this Teasmade, produced in the early 1940s, does not have the little red leaping goblin on its front, which is the logo of the company. The body of the clock is made of an plastic and the base is die-cast metal and both sections are sprayed with a cream-coloured paint. The kettle is chrome-plated metal and has a dimpled surface. On the top of the clock is a socket for a light.

When the water had boiled and been poured into the teapot (which, for this model, you would have to provide yourself), an alarm went off, triggered by the release of the weight of the water from the kettle. If you had managed to sleep through the whole gurgling and hissing processing of the water boiling, you would certainly need this alarm to wake you up.