The products as we know them today are descendants of the Model H, an industrial electric stand mixer designed by the Hobart Manufacturing Company in 1908. Cooks used the machine, which held 80 quarts, in commercial bakeries and naval battleships because it made it easier to cook in mass quantities.
A smaller version for at-home bakers, the Model H-5, arrived in 1919.
The stand mixer for home bakers arrived during an era that historians have called the second industrial revolution. During this period, which began in the 1920s, more middle-class American homes added electricity. Hobart's stand mixer also got smaller.
In the 1930s, KitchenAid brought in industrial designer Egmont Arens to shake up the stand mixer's look. That redesign set the stage for what the tilt-head mixers would look like for decades to come.
There are two options available when you buy a KitchenAid stand mixer -- the tilt-head model in which the part that houses the motor lifts, and the bowl-lift model (pictured here) in which you lower the mixing bowl and the motor is stationary.
