When my daughter saw the 1902 automatic tea maker pictured above she immediately dubbed it the "Wallace and Gromit" tea making set.

That is, of course, if the Jobs clan patent has now expired

Of course Gaabriels brother is into steampunk SO we could ask him to knock one of the 1902 models together....It strikes me that there might be some safety issues with that design tho

BTW, you would need some extreme luck trying to get the original 1902 version through an airport! LOL

I think the trick would be current and voltage. Swan manufactures in China so it would be simple to have a U.S. and Canada version. I read that the clock doesn't work on US voltage which is beyond weird because most electronics use DC current even if they're plugged into AC outlet.

We used to have a 'teasmade' back home.....looking for one over here....handy imho

Automatic Tea Making Machine patented in 1902. Everything was mechanical. Nothing in the machine was dependent on electricity. The user set the time he wished to be awoken, then several minutes prior to sounding the alarm, the tea maker struck a match lighting areservoirof alcohol spirits to heat the kettle, then one minute before the alarm sounded a mechanical spring raised the kettle to pour steaming water into the pot over the tea.

Plans to mass market this invention were brought to a screeching halt when the great grandfather of Steve Jobs claimed that the maker's patent wasn't valid because it too closely resembled the mechanism inside his automatic rice cooker. Litigation bankrupted both companies.

Swan Teasmadestoicallycarried on the quest for the ultimate way to gently awaken a customer (asunobtrusively as possible) with a fresh cuppa waiting and beckoning bedside. Rumor is, though, that Cupertino is considering litigation against Swan Teasmade saying that the idea was stolen from a patented app in the iPhone which awakens the owner andsimultaneously presents the morning's headlines and stock quote for AAPL.

updated by @harold-powell: 11/11/15 10:38:54PM