Page 68 - Australian House & Garden (January 2020)

H G INSIDER
Design moment
THER MOS
An innovation for retaining temperature evolved
into a household name, writes Chris Pearson.
e invented the vacuum flask, but
life proved no picnic for Oxford
HUniversity scientist Sir James Dewar
– he received little thanks from later
generations enjoying piping-hot tea
in the great outdoors or on the run.
Dewar actually created the flask to keep
liquids cold, not hot. Turning gas into liquid
was the Scottish chemist’s obsession. He
had devised means of producing liquid
oxygen by freezing, but how to maintain the
liquid in stable sub-zero temperatures?
In 1892, Dewar hit on a solution. While
experimenting in his London lab, he placed
a glass bottle inside a larger glass bottle, and
drew out the air between. He discovered
that this vacuum kept the temperature of
the contents constant for long periods.
A professional glassblower was engaged
to make sturdier versions, which led to the
manufacture of the Dewar flask, consisting
of two layers of glass, in 1898. But the
glassblower, Reinhold Burger, and his
66 | AUSTRALIAN HOUSE & GARDEN
business partner, Albert Aschenbrenner,
didn’t stop there. Drawing on Dewar’s
discovery, they crafted a domestic vacuum
flask with a protective metal casing for the
glass core and cheekily secured their own
patent. In 1904, they held a competition to
name the new invention. The lucky winner
came up with Thermos, from the Greek,
therme, meaning heat.
US entrepreneur William Walker, realising
the potential of a transatlantic market,
established the American Thermos Bottle
Company and began manufacturing in
Brooklyn, New York, in 1907, under Burger’s
supervision. But demand for the flasks blew
hot and cold – until Thermos won the grand
prize at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
World’s Fair in Seattle in 1909. It continued
to be honoured at seven more world fairs.
Further success was aided by a critical
breakthrough in 1911, when the company
pioneered the machine-made glass inner,
paving the way to mass-production. Its place
LEFT Thanks to Thermos, anytime is a good
time for a hot cup of tea or cool refreshment.
BELOW The Stainless King flask.
was sealed in the public imagination when
Ernest Shackleton’s epic expedition to the
Antarctic and the Wright brothers’ ground-
breaking biplane were equipped with these
fabulous flasks. During World War II, nearly all
the company’s output was diverted to military
production: every time 100 bombers left on
a raid, about 1000 flasks took off with them.
Thermos cannily tapped into the zeitgeist
too. In 1953, a lunchbox bearing the image
of Roy Rogers sold more than two million
units in one year; a 1962 partnership with
Mattel produced a Barbie lunchbox and
matching flask, another top seller. Back in
the UK, the company won the Queen’s
Award to Industry in 1971 for exporting
more than 50 per cent of its production
to more than 100 countries.
From the 1980s, glass inners gave way
to stainless steel – a step up in safety. On
the outside, striped and tartan finishes
gave way to metallics. “There is a level
of nostalgia around the brand that
cannot be matched by other companies,”
says Thermos Australia spokesperson Ravi
Beedham. It’s so pervasive that thermos has
become a byword for any thermal flask.
WHAT IT MEANS TO US
Thermoses have been a staple at Australian
gatherings since the late 1930s. But the
company hasn’t stood still: food jars, drink
bottles and travel mugs represent new
product categories, says Beedham. The
brands signature range, Stainless King,
includes bottles and flasks in four sizes
(470ml, 710ml, 1.2L and 2L). “Larger flasks
are great for outdoor adventurers; the
470ml flask is the perfect size for commutes.
That highlights the versatility of the range,
a key reason why it has worked so well.” Photograph from bauersyndication.com.au.
Aesthetically, the products have enjoyed a
long journey, with metallic red and blue the
company’s longest running and most widely
stocked colours. “A flask that is pleasing to
the eye as well as functional is a hallmark
of the Thermos brand,” says Beedham. #