William Hermann Brenner Thornton

Date Confirmed 1932

In 1932 William Hermann Brenner Thornton, an inventor from South Ealing, produced his first teawaker. The patent for this device was applied for on January 27th 1933, after George Augustus Absolom's patent of May 2nd 1932.

The Prototype Teasmade

Date Confirmed 1934

On January 23rd 1934 Brenner Thornton, (on this occasion calling himself William Harry Thornton), applied for a second patent, no 432207. It was from this prototype that Goblin's first commercial teawaker was derived.

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The prototype illustrated here is now on display in the National Science Museum. It was made mostly of plywood. This model was presented to the National Science Museum by Brenner Thornton (then of Wargrave), in 1970.

Brenner Thornton appears to have remained a central figure in the field of Teasmade design for Goblin for many years. His name appears on a 1974 patent application, listing him as "a British subject, of Derwent, 1 Milton Close, Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire".