A kettle, sometimes called teakettle, tea kettle or the pot, is a small kitchen appliance used for boiling water in preparation for making tea or other beverages requiring hot water. Kettles may be electric or for stovetop use. Depending on culture and historical location, the word kettle can also have a variety of other meanings.

Stovetop kettles

In the United States, '"kettle" usually refers to a teakettle, a roughly pitcher shaped metal (or ceramic) vessel used to heat water on a stovetop or hod. Kettles usually have a handle on top, a spout, and a lid. Sometimes stove-mounted kettles also have a steam whistle that indicates when the water has reached boiling point. Kettles often resemble teapots, but are used to boil water, not to brew tea.

Elsewhere in the world (and sometimes in the United States) the word kettle can also refer to a soup kettle, a metal pot for boiling or stewing, resembling a small cauldron.

Electric Kettles

Corded kettles generally use detachable IEC C15 and C16 connections.

"Cordless" kettles became popular in the 1980s and 1990s consisting of a plastic base that connects to the mains outlet and a separate kettle. They both have electrical contacts that connect to supply power to the kettle when it is placed on top of the base, and the kettle can be easily detached to allow movement to the sink and elsewhere.

Similar to the electric kettle is the electric water boiler, a vacuum flask with a heating element that boils water and maintains it at a constant temperature. These are particularly popular in East Asia.

History

The word kettle originates from Latin catillus, which in various contexts is translated as bowl, deep dish, or funnel. a kettle is probably the most ancient kind of metal cooking utensil. Common materials were wrought iron and pressed steel plate.

Development of the Electric Kettle

1880: During the period of the 1880's to the 1920's, people use cast iron kettle's to heat water for their hot beverages, like Tea & coffee. Cast iron kettles where cast from a mould and showed good thermal qualities. These kettles where heated on top of a stove.

1920s: During this period, of the 1920's-1930's people used kerosene kettles. These kettles were popular, as a stove was no longer needed to heat up water. Also this meant that people had no need to heat up the entire stove just for a cup of tea, plus less thermal energy was required to heat up the water. But there was a bad side to this kettle; there would be more fumes in the house, from the kerosene.