Translations:Siemens/17/en
Electrical home appliances remained luxury goods for a long time due largely to a patchy public power supply. A mere fifty percent of households were connected to the power network in the metropolis of Berlin in 1927. Yet Siemens had been manufacturing electrical home appliances since the turn of the century. The history of Siemens Hausgeräte began in 1906 with the dust suction pump, the world's first vacuum cleaner.[1] Siemens was producing home appliances, such as coffee grinders, hairdryers, drying hoods, irons, refrigerators, washing machines and electric cookers, under the brand name "Protos" from 1925.[2] The "Gesellschaft für drahtlose Telegraphie mbH", or "Telefunken" as it was known, was founded as a joint venture between Siemens and AEG and produced radio receivers and the first television sets in the 1930s.[3]