Kitchen Timer

Hello there. My name is Kitchen Timer, and I am your friendly kitchen helper. You might have seen me sitting on the counter, looking like a little round clock with numbers all around my face. My job is the most exciting and important job in the whole kitchen. I get to count down the minutes until something yummy is ready to eat. While I wait, I make a quiet, steady sound, tick-tock, tick-tock. It’s the sound of patience, the sound of a cake rising perfectly in the oven. But when my job is done, I get really loud and cheerful. RIIING. That is my happy shout to the cook. It means, 'Come quick. Your delicious chocolate chip cookies are perfectly golden brown.' Before I came along, so many tasty treats got burnt and turned into sad, black crisps. Noodles would get mushy, and soup would boil over, making a big mess. I was invented to be a special kitchen hero, a friend who makes sure every meal is a happy success.

Life in the kitchen used to be very tricky. Imagine trying to bake a birthday cake, but you had to keep running to the living room to check the big wall clock. Cooks had to guess how much time had passed, and sometimes they guessed wrong. That made them feel very frustrated. But then, a clever man named Thomas Norman Hicks had a wonderful idea in the 1920s. He saw all the worried cooks and thought, 'There must be a better way.' He wanted to create a small, simple clock just for the kitchen. So, he got to work. He found a special spring that he could wind up tightly. As the spring slowly unwound, it would turn my little dial, moving my pointer from one number to the next. Tick, tock, I went. He designed me so that when the pointer reached the zero, it would hit a tiny bell inside me. And that’s how I got my ring. After lots of hard work, he showed his invention to the world. On April 20th, 1926, he was given a special paper called a patent, which said that the idea for me was all his. I was so proud. I knew I was ready to help.

After Mr. Hicks invented me, I started showing up in kitchens everywhere. I was a hero. I sat proudly next to ovens, helping families bake fluffy bread and roast yummy chickens. No more burnt dinners. With my loud RIIING, I made sure every meal was a celebration. I loved helping people feel happy and successful in their kitchens. I said, “I can make your mornings easier and your dinners tastier.” As time went on, my spirit of helping started to appear in new places. Have you ever seen the timer on a microwave or a phone? That’s me, just in a different costume. I am still counting down the minutes for pizza, for cupcakes, and even for taking turns in a game. Even though I look different now, my job is still the same. I am here to help families have fun, make delicious things together, and share happy moments around the table. And that makes me tick with joy.