The Lazy Susan Revolution - The First Patented Lazy Susan Turntable for Rectangular Long & Oblong Tables - Expandable Lazy Susan for Kitchen & Dining Tables - Great Gift! Fun at Parties & Gatherings.

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The Lazy Susan Revolution makes dinner time is so much fun! The kids love it! And so do the adults. Everyone can serve themselves and enjoy without bothering anyone at the other side of the table. By 1918, Century Magazine was already describing the lazy Susan as out of fashion, [21] but beginning in the 1950s its popularity soared once again after the redesign and reintroduction of the lazy Susan by George Hall, an engineer, soy sauce manufacturer, and partner in popular San Francisco-area Chinese restaurants ( Johnny Kan's, Ming's of Palo Alto and John Ly's Dining), and the rotating tray became ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants and was used in homes around the globe. [22] The decline in America's domestic service sector after World War I and its collapse following World War II, [23] combined with the post-war Baby Boom, led to a great demand for them in US households across the country in the 1950s and 1960s. This popularity has had the effect, however, of making them seem kitsch in subsequent decades. [4] Other uses [ edit ] The lazy Susan was initially uncommon enough in the United States for the utopianist Oneida Community to be credited with its invention. They employed the devices as part of their practice of communal living, making food easily and equally available to residents and visitors at meals. [11] An American patent was issued in 1891 to Elizabeth Howell for "certain new and useful Improvements in Self-Waiting Tables". Howell's device ran more smoothly and did not permit bread crumbs to fall into the space between the lazy Susan and the table. [12] The rotating serviette at "Penates", the estate of Russian painter Ilya Repin at Kuokkala. Made in 1909 by Finnish carpenter Ikahainen. [13] Despite various folk etymologies linking the name to Jefferson and Edison's daughters, the earliest use of these "serviettes" or "butler's assistants" [14] [11] being called a lazy Susan dates to the 1903 Boston Journal:

There is a table arrangement used much in Germany, which has now found its way to America, though it is still by no means common. The German frau calls it "Lazy Susan", but it is entirely different from our product used for salt and pepper shakers. Its only point of similarity is the swivel upon which it turns. The one which joys my heart is of mahogany, and it turns automatically at the slightest touch. It contains seven china dishes, six of which are trapezoids, the center one being octagonal. The trapezoids fit about the center octagon, forming a perfect whole. For the film, see Lazy Susan (film). For the song, see Lazy Susan (song). A lazy Susan in a Chinese restaurant Laurie was a Scottish carpenter who made his "lazy Susan" to the personal specifications of a Hingham-area woman. Unfortunately he presented this gift to her too late, which caused her to unleash an abusive tirade upon Laurie. When she finally asked him for the price, he "told her it wasn't for sale, though of course it is". [15] [11] The name was repeated in a 1911 Idaho Statesman article – which describes it as "a cousin to the 'curate's assistant', as the English muffin stand is called" [16] [11] – and again in the 1912 Christian Science Monitor, which calls the "silver" lazy Susan "the characteristic feature of the self-serving dinner table". [17] By the next year, the Lima Daily News described an Ohioan "inaugurat[ing] ... the 'Lazy Susan' method of serving". [18] Henry Ford used an enormous one on his camping trips in the 1920s to avoid bringing a full contingent of servants along with his guests. [4] In 1933, the term was added to the Webster's Dictionary. [19]Many people claim that Thomas Jefferson invented it (or at least popularized it in America). He brought the concept of the “dumb waiter” to Monticello following a trip to France. Jefferson’s dumb (or silent) waiters were serving trays with wheels. A guest who dined at the President’s house recalled, “By each individual was placed a dumbwaiter, containing everything necessary for the progress of dinner from beginning to end.” Today, some call the lazy susan a dumbwaiter (especially in Britain). It serves many of the same purposes and is a spin-off of this functional piece of furniture. Others attributed the name to another Thomas: Edison. After all, he was the mastermind behind the phonograph, introduced in 1877, and its spinning turntable. Today, this turntable has multiple uses , far beyond its early purpose as a servant replacement. It is the new centerpiece of the modern dining table—as functional as ever but having undergone a high-end makeover that has designers and homeowners, and those that gather around their tables, clamoring to take them for a spin. Smithsonian Magazine, The Lazy Susan, the Classic Centerpiece of Chinese Restaurants, Is Neither Classic nor Chinese.

The concept is innovative, and we can certainly see a need for an elongated lazy Susan turntable, especially when Thanksgiving and the holiday season are upon us. But how well does it actually perform? Is it a pain to assemble, take apart, and store (because unless you are the host or hostess with the mostest, let’s face it: You are maybe getting a few uses out of it each year). And last but not least: Is it aesthetically pleasing—or will it compete with your tablescape vision? Pass the potatoes” is easier said than done when five of your nearest and dearest relatives are sandwiched between you and your potato-loving great aunt at a family gathering. Many can relate to and picture what happens next: a plate wobbling on its way from one end of the table to another, olive oil dripping to the tablecloth as the plate clumsily exchanges hands, and family members pretending not to be annoyed that they have to put down forkfuls of turkey to deliver the goods to Aunt Ida.

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Part of the mystery arises from the variety of devices that were grouped under the term "dumb waiter" (today written dumbwaiter). An early 18th-century British article in The Gentleman's Magazine describes how silent machines had replaced garrulous servants at some tables [7] and, by the 1750s, Christopher Smart was praising the "foreign" but discreet devices in verse. [8] It is, however, almost certain that the devices under discussion were wheeled serving trays similar to those introduced by Thomas Jefferson to the United States from France, [9] where they were known as étagères. [9] At some point during or before the third quarter of the 18th century, the name dumb waiter also began to be applied to rotating trays. [2] (Jefferson never had a lazy Susan at Monticello, but he did construct a box-shaped rotating book stand and, as part of serving "in the French style", employed a revolving dining-room door whose reverse side supported a number of shelves. [10]). By the 1840s, Americans were applying the term to small lifts carrying food between floors as well. [2] The success of George W. Cannon's 1887 mechanical dumbwaiter popularised this usage, replacing the previous meanings of "dumbwaiter".