This table fan, designed by Peter Behrens, was introduced in 1908 by Allgemeine Elektricitäts Gesellschaft (A.E.G.), the successor to DEG (Deutsche Edison Gesellschaft), a German company originally founded 1883 by Emil Rathenau based on Edison's light bulb. AEG was the German equivalent of General Electric in the US. Peter Behrens was appointed artistic advisor to AEG in 1907 and become intensely involved with its architectural, product, and graphic design programs at AEG until World War I. He simply and clearly stated his design philosophy: "It is agreed; we refuse to duplicate handmade works, historical style forms, and other materials for production." In effect, he was the first corporate designer, and created the first "corporate image" for AEG. This included several company trademarks, the last of which, designed in 1914, is still recognizable today. Other AEG designs included a number of electric water kettles and a Turbine Factory Hall in 1909. The factory inspires the US's Albert Kahn in his factories for Ford (1910) and Walter Gropius' Faguswerk shoe factory in Germany (1911), thus establishing the glass and "factory esthetic" at the Deutsche Werkbund exhibition of 1914, which was incorporated into the modern movement. Peter Behrens (1868-1940), a German architect and designer, was born in Hamburg and studied painting at Karlsruhe and Düsseldorf schools of art from 1886 to 1889. He co-founded the Munich Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk (United Workshops for Art in Handcraft) in 1897, and was professor of an artists colony in Darmstadt from 1900-1903. He was director of the Düsseldorf School of Arts and Crafts from 1903 to 1907 and was a founding member of the Deutsche Werkbund, also in 1907. Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe all studied under him.in his office, which he opened in 1908. During and after WW I he continued to practice as an architect.

General Electric's GE First Toaster was a two-slice model with a porcelain base and a warming tray on top, the D-12. Such products were made possible by the perfection in 1907 of long-life nickel-chrome alloy electrical resistors. The exposed heating coils were a hazard, but they were tested and approved in 1909 by Underwriters Laboratories (founded 1894) along with a Westinghouse model. The D-12, built on assembly tables by women, was widely distributed and would remain in production until 1913. Such appliances were traditionally placed on a special wooden "cooking table" which had electrical outlets for individual appliances such as water kettles, cookers and pop-corn poppers, and a separate oven. GE produced its first one in 1905. A true "electric cook stove" was not on the market until 1910 (See Hughes Range). General Electric was formed in 1892 with the consolidation of the Edison General Electric Company and the Thomson-Houston Company. It entered the "housewares" business with an electric desk fan in 1889. In 1900 it established a research laboratory under consultant Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865-1923), the first of its kind. GE produced its first electric iron in 1904. By 1908 the research lab had a staff of 8. In 1910, the US standardized on alternating current at 60 cycles and 120 volts. By 1917, the GE research lab had a staff of 298, and by 1918, there would be some 375 similar industrial research labs in the US.

This electric iron, introduced to the market in 1905 by Earl H. Richardson, arranged the heating elements in a way which concentrated the heat at the forward point of the soleplate, to better iron buttonholes and pleated materials. Customers loved the "hot point" on the iron. Richardson, as a meter reader at the Ontario (California) Power Company in 1903, had developed an electric iron and distributed a number of free samples to customers. But ironing was always done on Tuesdays (Monday was wash day), and at that time, power was only provided at night, for lighting. Richardson reasoned that sales of electric appliances could only succeed with the cooperation of power companies, so he convinced his employer to generate electricity all day on Tuesdays, so his irons could be used. The 1905 iron with the "hot point" became the first commercially successful electric laundry iron, and was formally named the Hotpoint iron in 1907. In 1912, the company itself was named the Hotpoint Electric Heating Company. In 1918, the Hotpoint company merged with the Hughes Electric Heating Company (See Hughes Electric Range, 1910) and the heating device section of General Electric, to form the Edison Electric Appliance Company, with Hughes as president. The new company produced Hotpoint brand name products, first the iron, and in 1919, the first Hotpoint electric range. In 1931, the Edison Electric Appliance Company became the Edison General Electric Company, and in 1934, the Hotpoint brand name was integrated into General Electric production.