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George Augustus Absolom, 1900-1957 George Absolom was born in 1900. His first wife was Lydia Sweeney, with whom he had a son, Robert, born 24th February 1927. Sadly Lydia died in a tragic accident when, at home alone with Robert, she fell down the stairs. Following his mother's death Robert was sent to live in Cheam, Surrey, with his maternal grandmother. At this time George was a Sound Engineer with Western Electrics. He met his second wife Margaret Chisholm (known as Peggy), a 19 year old hotel receptionist in Galashiels, Scotland and married her. Together they went to Johannesburg in South Africa, where George was involved in converting the cinemas there from picture only to "talkies". George and Peggy had a daughter, Joan, during this period. |
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On their return to England in 1932, George and Peggy bought 52 Lansbury Drive, Hayes, at a cost of around £500. It was a brand new three bedroom end of terrace house on the left end of a block of four on the Grange Park Estate, built by Taylor Woodrow in 1932. This address is quoted on the patent application George made in the May of this year. |
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The house has a shared driveway
beside it leading to a semi-detached garage. Number 54,
the house to the left of this driveway was owned by
George's sister Edith (known
as Eddie) and
her husband, Reginald Juster (known as Reg). In those days, before the era of trading estates, it was not unusual for businesses to operate in garages and small buildings within residential areas. The two garages between the houses were converted into a workshop and employed about 5 or 6 men. There was another building attached to the garages as an additional workspace. The present owner can still detect some signs of light industrial use. There is some blackening of the rafters in the garage, the vestiges of a doorway between the two garages, and a second telephone line terminates at the rear of the house as if it once led to the garages. |
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The Teesmade Date Confirmed - 1932 On May 2nd 1932 George submitted an application for a patent on his invention, an electric automatic tea maker, which predated the Goblin electric Teasmade. The Patent (number 400672) was passed on November 2nd 1933. The cabinets were not made at 52 Lansbury Drive. George's son Robert tells me that his father had some connections with a Mr Reg Kidd who would probably have made the cabinets in his workshop. The unit, shown on the left, bears a label naming the manufacturer as Automatic Utilities Ltd. Sadly Companies House retains no details of this, George Absolom's first company. The label reads: The word 'teesmade' was certainly initiated by George Absolom and predates the use of the word 'teasmade' by about four years. George Absolom applied for a Registered Design using the name Teesmade, but this was not accepted by the Patent Office on the grounds that the unit was not made on the River Tees this might confuse the public. Geographic trademarks were invariably refused at this time, indeed the Patent Office passed legislation to forbid them in 1938. This legislation has since been relaxed. Although the name could not be formally protected, from 1932 onwards George Absolom continued to trade as Teesmade Co. Goblin were in no position to object, as the name had the indisputable advantage of prior use. One can only guess at Goblin's frustration as they reluctantly turned a blind eye to their competitor. Unfortunately no records remain at Companies House for Teesmade Co. |
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George's son Robert returned to
live with his father and stepmother in approximately 1934,
when he was about seven years old. At this stage Absolom was chiefly engaged in producing automatic tea makers in the converted garages at the back of his house, but he was also involved in other projects. In August 1934 he submitted an application to patent an ingenious device which used coloured lamps to indicate the approximate speed of moving vehicles for the benefit of other road users and pedestrians. Now wouldn't that be a good way to clamp down on speeding today? On leaving school at the age of 14, Robert joined his father in the business, where he continued to work until 1962, apart from 2 years National Service in the Royal Marines from 1945 to 1947. Robert Absolom beleives that following the Teesmade Cabinet his father developed a model with a tapered frontage, both kettle and teapot being situated behind the clock. This model, like the Teesmade cabinet, was teapot controlled, i.e. a changeover switch was operated when the kettle boiled and the combined weight of the teapot and the input of water tilted and tripped the switch mechanism. Early Goblin models operated in the same manner. |
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On August 21st 1935 Absolom,
together with George Herbert Johnson of Hampton
Works, Sheen Lane, Mortlake, SW14, applied for a patent for a new design, patent no 440941. This design operated the changeover
switch by loss of weight from the kettle when it poured,
thus offering a free choice of teapot. George reached an agreement with L.G.Hawkins to manufacture these tea makers for them. The unit, branded as the Tecal, was manufactured by George Absolom from 1936 until the beginning of World War 2 in 1939. To continue of the story of the Tecal jump to Tecal. George's son Robert has no recollection of George Herbert Johnson but he recalls that kettles for the tea makers were plated in the Mortlake area, which may account for this association. In 1949 Absolom and Hawkins jointly applied for patent number 616208, for an automatic thermal cut-out for an electric heating element. |
 The workforce at the rear Rpbert Absolom seated
centre right Photo courtesy Robert
Absolom © |
George's second daughter, Heather,
was born in 1936, but tragically,
she died aged about four in a terrible housefire accident
while she was on holiday with Peggy's sister in Scotland. During World War 2 production of tea makers ceased as there were no materials or capacity for domestic products. During this period George Absolom was involved with the production of Rheostats that controlled the lighting on tanks, and various other machine based work. To continue of the story of George Absolom jump to Teesmade Engineering. |
