Item 2024-007/026 - GE Model (Floor Polisher)

Frederick E. “Fred” Moffatt, industrial designer, was born in Toronto in 1912. He left Central Technical School at the age of 16 to pursue a career as an illustrator. His first job was at Southam Press, cutting French rubber plates for water colour tinting. He then joined Rapid Grip, a photo engraving company, as an apprentice, but was let go in 1931 due to the Depression. Moffatt started his own company and built up business by drawing sketches for advertising agencies to promote the products of Carnation, General Foods, General Motors, Kodak, and other companies while taking night classes at the Ontario College of Art. His clientele grew to include Canadian General Electric Company Limited (CGE) and Pitney-Bowes, the postage meter company. Despite suffering a nervous breakdown due to overwork, Moffatt was enjoying success as a designer and was developing his contacts with CGE. The company asked Moffatt to work with an engineer at Canadian Motor Lamp, CGE’s lamp factory, who had combined a chromed headlight shell with a heating element to create a prototype electric kettle. Moffatt reconfigured the handle and spout to prevent spillage and scalding, improvements that also reduced production costs. The model K42 kettle was introduced to the marketplace by CGE in 1940 as the world’s first electric kettle. It was a great success, leading the company to request a more advanced model to deter copies. Moffatt produced an oval, streamlined version in 1941, and continued to work on kettle designs until 1980. The scope of Moffatt’s work with CGE expanded in the 1950s to include one of the first electric lawnmowers, a floor polisher that won national awards, and a teardrop floor heater that won a design competition in Milan. Moffatt was a freelance contractor, working on a handshake agreement that he would design only for CGE and that CGE would engage no other industrial designers. After Black & Decker Canada Incorporated bought CGE’s small appliance division in 1984, Moffatt and his son Glenn worked for two years converting graphics, packaging, and other design elements to Black & Decker’s brand. The line was launched at Ontario Place in 1986. Two weeks later, Black & Decker terminated Moffatt’s contract as it had its own design department in Connecticut. Moffatt worked with other commercial clients in the ensuing years, often in collaboration with Glenn. Fred Moffatt died on 2 Aug. 2006.