While our great-grandparents – and even our grandparents – toiled away for hours on mundane tasks around the home, chances are you have multiple labour-saving and leisure devices that you take for granted scattered throughout your house. But have you ever stopped to think about where they came from, who came up with them and what your life would be like without them?

Click or scroll on to discover everything from early dishwashers and dryers to vintage TVs and lawnmowers and watch their fascinating evolution unfold...

As a wealthy young socialite, Josephine Cochrane grew tired of her servants chipping her best china. But it was only when she was widowed and money grew tight that she found a reason to design the perfect dishwasher.

Machines had been invented in the 1850s and 1860s but weren't effective. Tired of waiting for something better, Josephine declared: "If nobody else is going to invent a dish washing machine, I'll do it myself!"

Her design (right) was the first to use water pressure instead of brushes. She received her patent in 1886 and her design proved a hit with hoteliers and restauranteurs when she exhibited at the 1893 World's Fair. However, it would be a few decades before it caught on in the home...

While Cochrane's dishwasher was too large for most homes to accommodate, this relatively small machine could sit right next to the sink. Designed in 1921 by a Cincinnati school teacher for his wife, it hooked up to a hot water tap and made dishes "clean and spotless in two minutes".

While it may look a little different to what we're used to these days, the water jets and wire rack certainly influenced modern designs.

This image was taken from a 1940s film in which a technician demonstrates a General Electric dishwasher with a transparent viewing window. Although there are a few notable differences, the similarities with today's dishwashers are clear to see.

It wasn't until after the Second World War that dishwashers became popular in homes. This was due to an economic boom that put more money in people's pockets, as well as manufacturers being freed from war work to develop home appliances. It may also have been due to young women turning their backs on domestic servitude, forcing wealthy women to find new ways to clean their homes.

While plain old brooms were largely the norm in the 19th century, vacuum carpet sweepers – like this rather fabulous looking 1899 model – could pick up dust and debris via suction created by water or bellows, and were operated manually via a long handle or a foot pump.

These types of vacuums were around as early as 1860, but they required a fair amount of physical exertion and were hardly ideal for the busy maid or housewife.

In 1901, huge horse-drawn petrol-powered machines like this one began to appear on the streets of London. Invented by engineer Hubert Cecil Booth and manned by uniformed operators, the vacuum cleaner would stand outside the home while long cleaning hoses were fed through the doors and windows. Rugs could also be brought outside to vacuum, as we see here in 1919.

Onlookers would marvel as they watched the dirt build up inside a special glass viewing chamber. While it disrupted the streets so intensely it sparked court cases, the machines proved a hit –Russia's Tzar Nicholas II snapped one up, as did Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II and the British House of Commons. Few else had the means: just one visit from a vacuum cleaner cost the same as a junior maid's yearly wage.

Wealthy households snapped up small motor-powered models from 1915, in part to ease the workload of domestic staff to retain them after the First World War when home help became scarce.

However, like many of these new-fangled appliances, it wasn't until the 1950s that they became more affordable and were manufactured on a large scale.

While it may be a far cry from your Roomba robot, this electric vacuum from 1924 is remarkably similar to the designs that dominated the 20th century.

For thousands of years, clothes washing remained largely unchanged: you headed to a river or your local wash house and you got scrubbing. Then, in 1851, everything changed.

In a flurry of activity in the mid to late 19th century, three inventors in America and England patented drum-based contraptions like this one, each building on the model that came before. By the 1870s, when this advertisement was created, spinning washing machines cycled heated water into the tub and came kitted out with a mangle for squeezing water from freshly washed clothes.

This improvised 1914 gas-powered set-up might seem farfetched but in 1927, Maytag – who still makes laundry appliances today – made a washing machine with a gas engine.

While they were extremely noisy, they were top of the range and had their perks: many models used the gas power to also heat the water.

The first electric washing machine was invented back in 1908. Named 'Thor' it looked much like the 19th-century barrel and wringer models, but were made of galvanised metal instead of wood. This design was popular right into the 1950s when portable white-enamelled devices could be wheeled right up to the kitchen sink.

In the 1950s and 1960s, these developed into the large front-loading appliances we know and love today.

Before the tumble dryer, the humble wringer – or mangle – reigned supreme. Mangles have been used since at least the mid-15th century for both smoothing and drying. Small upright wringers like this one have appeared in homes since the mid-19th century and were very effective; they are so effective that commercial laundry companies still use industrial mangles today.

However, they were slow and laborious, which gave rise to the first tumble dryer. All the way back in 1799, a French inventor named Pochons came up with a design that dried multiple items at once in a perforated metal drum, hand-cranked over an open fire. The smoke smell and soot marks were less than desirable, but the design inspired other inventors...

African American inventor George T. Sampson refined the design in 1892, replacing the open fire with a stove, and electric tumble dryers appeared in 1915. However, it wasn't until the 1930s that a relatively affordable model became available to the general public.

In the 1940s the spin dryer was invented (pictured), offering a compact, portable alternative. Still in use today, they contain a centrifuge that spins at 3,600 rotations per minute, removing more water in two to three minutes than a tumble dryer can in 20 to 35 minutes! The only downside is that they don't completely dry clothes.

Thanks to its ability to produce warm fluffy clothing straight from the drum, the tumble dryer won out and sales soared during the 1940s. After the Second World War, fancy features like temperature controls, timers and a cool cycle were added, followed by the dryness sensor in the 1950s and the permanent press cycle in 1965.

Compared to feeding individual clothing items through a hand-cranked mangle, the tumble dryer has been a true game-changer!

You've probably got one in your home, but have you ever wondered exactly how a microwave cooks your food? Well, it bombards your lunch with a high-frequency electromagnetic field that causes the molecules to vibrate and produce heat. With that in mind, it's no wonder it's one of the later inventions on our list.

These images show sandwiches being cooked with a shortwave radio transmitter at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.

By 1946, Raytheon had developed this RadaRange microwave and a year later they shipped the first three ever to be sold. However, the units were a little bulkier than this model – they measured almost six feet tall (1.8m), weighed 750 pounds (340kg) and cost $5,000 (that would be about £64k/$81k today). Unsurprisingly, they only attracted commercial and industrial buyers.

Alarmingly, they were 10 times more powerful than today's microwaves.

In 1955, a smaller microwave hit the stores. While it was built-in and wall-mounted, the Tappan RL-1 cost $1,295 (that's more than £12k/$15k today)! As you can imagine, the hefty price tag put off most shoppers.

Over the decades that followed, the tech developed and by the mid to late 1960s a microwave like this one cost 'just' $495 – although that's still the best part of £5k/$6k today.

Fun fact: microwaves can't escape the oven because the metal casing acts as a Faraday cage, blocking radiation. Meanwhile, opening the door automatically shuts off the magnetron, which prevents microwaves from escaping through the open door.

Slices of bread were first toasted over a fire held with a fork or tongs or laid flat on a range. The Romans even had a word for this roasted bread: 'tostus' – sound familiar?

Released in 1909, this General Electric model was the first commercially available toaster. It only heated one side of the bread at a time, however, and the eagle-eyed cook had to constantly monitor the machine and turn it off manually when they judged the toast to be done.

Work began on the first bread slicer in 1912 and pre-sliced bread – including US favourite Wonder Bread – was sold nationwide by 1930, which made toast that little bit more convenient.

By 1933, toasters like this one cooked both sides of the bread at once.

By the time 1944 rolled around and future US President Harry S. Truman was snapped making toast in his Missouri kitchen, the toaster looked much as it does today. 

The automatic pop-up mechanism was patented in 1921 by a Welsh-American inventor. Commercial toasters with this feature hit the shelves in 1926 and made burnt toast – mostly – a thing of the past.

Ironing may be falling out of fashion these days, but the flat iron – also known as a sad iron (meaning heavy iron) – has been around for centuries. The earliest were heated on stoves or fireside hobs.

Box irons – like the one in this 1760s painting – contained hot coals or pre-heated metal 'slugs' inserted into the iron. They could be quite decorative, with cut-out patterns and flora swirls, as were the rests they were placed on while hot.

From the 1850s, housewives and laundry maids could buy mini furnaces powered by natural gas, which they rested their flat irons on to keep them hot. They cost as little as $3.25 (or around £99/$125 these days).

In 1858, David Lithgow from Philadelphia, USA invented one of the world's first truly gas-powered irons, which plugged straight into the home supply. This advert shows a woman in Denmark using one of his irons in 1861.

A gasoline-fuelled model was patented in 1903 and sold for $3.50 each – about £100/$126 today. They proved popular in homes without electricity and were produced for the next 50 years, although we can't help but think they sound slightly alarming!

The first electric flatiron was patented in New York in 1882 by Henry W. Seely. They were also in use in France around the same time. However, they weren't particularly safe and the gadgets only really took off in 1892, when it became possible to regulate the iron's heat thanks to new designs that used electrical resistance.

This model was pictured demonstrating an electric iron in 1910. Note how early electric appliances plugged directly into a light fitting instead of the sockets we use today.

Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell came up with the world's first receiver that could turn electricity into sound in 1875. While others were working on similar tech at the time, Bell was the first to receive a patent just one year later. This photo taken in 1915 shows a man using one of the inventor's first models.

Today, the Bell Telephone Company, founded in 1877, still exists under the guise of AT&T – the world's fifth-largest telecoms company.

The Bell Telephone Company flourished and phone designs grew more practical. In 1878, the first telephone exchange appeared in Connecticut, USA, allowing phone owners to contact each other – a rather important piece of the puzzle, which contributed to the phone's commercial success. The invention in 1889 of the first fully automatic switchboard helped telephone use spread far and wide.

This photo was taken of a woman talking on her home phone in 1890.

With its curved receiver and cradle base, this model, pictured between 1900 and 1910, resembles the home phones that came to dominate hallways and kitchens everywhere for the following seventy years. 

Usually hogged by the teenagers of the house, they were slowly superseded by cordless phones, which became popular in the 1980s and 1990s. They were in turn made redundant by the mobile phone. As convenient as they are, we can't help but look back fondly at the home phone and remember coiling its curly cord around our fingers as we chatted away.

While most of our ancestors would have heated water in a pot over an open fire, wood or coal-fired boilers – like this one from the 1920s – harnessed English inventor James Watt's steam engine technology and led to the first domestic boiler being installed in 1812.

It was followed in 1886 by the Geyser, an instant home water heater powered by natural gas. Like a lot of these early inventions, it proved dangerous – this time because there was no flue to remove the gasses from the bathroom.

As gas heaters improved, they shrunk in size and could be conveniently mounted on the wall. Before the invention of the domestic combi-boiler, many homes used two separate boilers for heating their water and their homes.

This 1940 photo shows a typical kitchen with a Crane Carlton coal boiler beside the cooker and an Ascot gas water heater mounted on the wall.

Sleek units like this one were a far cry from the clunky giants that once dwelled in the basement. Whether integrated into kitchen units or mounted on the wall, they fit seamlessly into the mid-century aesthetic. 

The instant combi-boiler – i.e. a boiler that heated both the water and the home – was dreamt up in the 1920s, according to home appliance manufacturer Bosch. But it wasn't until the 1960s that they became widely available in the home. At just 16 inches (40cm) wide, they could fit into tight spaces and – without the need for a water tank – they freed up space.   

Our ancestors are thought to have roasted mammoth meat in earth ovens as far back as 29,000 BC and the ancient Greeks and Egyptians baked bread in brick ovens. However, it wasn't until 1800 that the first cast-iron stove with grates specifically for cooking food was invented in Philadelphia, USA.

This wood-burning stove from the 1890s resembles the type of stove most commonly used throughout the 19th century.

British inventor James Sharp patented the first commercially successful gas oven in 1826. The design was refined over the following years and gas cookers grew in popularity, so by the time the 1920s rolled around, most homes had a stove like this one (photographed in 1920) with an integrated oven and top burners.

Despite being around since the 1890s, it wasn't until the late 1920s and early 1930s that electric cookers gained popularity.

This image shows a 1948 General Motors Frigidaire electric stove. Ads for the all-porcelain appliance boasted that it heated up in just five and a half minutes, cooked complete meals for just 5 cents (around 60p/70¢ today) and was a dream to clean. These days, the same model in good condition can fetch as much as £1,000 ($1.5k).

An ice box like these ornate wooden ones was the best and most popular way to keep food chilled from around 1830 onwards. The compartment at the top held a block of ice and – as cold air is heavier than hot air – food was stored below. If you were lucky enough to live somewhere chilly though, you could just leave your perishables outside during winter!

Later models were made from metal and enamel and they were popular right into the 1930s.

In 1913, the first electric home refrigerators were invented in America. Although they were pretty basic – just a refrigeration unit on top of an ice box – after a few improvements, fridges started to be mass-produced in 1918. This elegant 1920s number looks just like the designs we're familiar with today.

According to appliance manufacturer Whirlpool, fridges back then cost between $500 to $1,000 (around £8k/$10k to £17k/$21k today), so they were way out of reach of an average household.

While compartments for ice cube trays were around in the 1920s, they gradually grew larger and by the 1940s, evolved into freezer compartments. By the 1950s, high-end models like this one were hardly the norm but rounded corners, new vibrant colour options and the bulky frame were certainly reminiscent of the time. Water dispensers appeared in the 1980s and a stainless steel finish was all the rage in the 1990s.

According to online magazine The Atlantic, it's Americans who have the biggest refrigerators in the world today, with 17.5 cubic feet (0.5 cubic metres) of volume on average.

While great strides were made to simplify and speed up chores inside the home, similar innovations found their way into the garden.

Neat, formal lawns were all the rage in 18th-century France and, as so often happens with chic French trends, they quickly spread to the rest of the world. Early on, grazing animals kept the grass short. Then in 1830, the wonderfully-named Edwin Beard Budding patented this mechanical 'machine for mowing lawns, etc.' in England.

The image on the left was taken in 1903 and shows a worker riding one of the world's first ride-on lawnmowers with a steam engine cutting grass at the US Capitol building in Washington DC. On the right, we see a man operating a 1920s petrol lawnmower.

For a short time, steam-powered mowers looked like they were winning out, but by 1900 it was clear that petrol-powered machines had cornered the market.

By the 1960s, rotary 'hover' mowers were significantly smaller and made from plastic, making them lighter and more accessible. Naturally, the electrical revolution added a new wave of tech, although petrol mowers remain popular today.

Much like the vacuum cleaners of today, cordless automated models are all the rage and are a far cry from the simple metal contraptions of the 19th century.

All these new appliances freed up more time for leisure, so it's just as well two exciting new inventions – the radio and the television – made their way into homes in the early 20th century.

These youngsters are pictured around 1920 listening to a crystal radio set. They were mostly used by amateur enthusiasts from around 1906 onwards but they had their issues: the sets could only be enjoyed using headphones and they were notoriously difficult to tune to a station. Despite this, from around 1920 broadcasting stations sprang up worldwide and radio became the first electronic medium to hold the masses in its thrall.

Thanks to the invention of plug-in radio receivers and loudspeakers, radio really took off in 1927 and swiftly became a sensation. Its Golden Age peaked in the 1930s and 1940s when families would gather around a large unit like this one (pictured in 1938) and tune into popular programmes.

Catchphrases, dramatic storylines and beloved characters peppered conversations everywhere and people even arranged their schedules to catch their favourite shows.

In the 1950s and 1960s, radio sets slimmed down so they could easily sit on a desk or windowsill – or even slip right into your pocket, like this one. And while television had largely superseded radio by this time, music stations were still incredibly popular and provided a gateway to the era's musical revolution.

History buffs and gadget fans will have no trouble identifying this famous face. Scottish inventor John Logie Baird was among the first to build a successful television, along with Charles Jenkins of the US. Baird transmitted the image of a recognisable human face in 1925, however, just pipping Jenkins to the post, so he's generally recognised as TV's founding father. He's pictured here in 1926 demonstrating an early set.

At first, it looked unlikely that television would ever catch on. However, it gradually captured the public's imagination and by the end of the 1920s, TV stations had sprung up on both sides of the Atlantic. Thousands of people bought primitive sets to watch basic images like smoke rising from chimneys  riveting!

TV tech moved on in leaps during the 1930s. Images broadcast in the 1920s had been made up of 30 lines per picture and 12 pictures per second. But after the UK's Electric and Musical Industries Ltd. (EMI) began using cathode-ray tubes in the early 1930s, that jumped to 405 lines per image and 25 images per second.

In 1936, the BBC pitched Baird and EMI's systems against each other in a competition. Sadly, Baird's labs were destroyed by fire soon after and EMI won out. While Baird died in 1946, broke and largely forgotten, his invention took off and by 1949 there were 4.2 million TV sets like this one in American homes.

The hit song Video Killed the Radio Star was certainly true by the 1960s. Radio had had its day in the sun – particularly once colour TV became widely available. Screens grew larger and chunky, free-standing sets like this one became the norm in homes everywhere.

Shows like Bewitched, Star Trek, Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Twilight Zone captivated audiences in their millions and helped enshrine the TV as a cultural phenomenon – which, thanks to developments like streaming, it still is today.

Loved this? Explore more retro home trends and vintage interiors