Rufus M. Eastman
On November 17 1885 a historic breakthrough occurred. On that day Rufus M. Eastman was granted a patent on the world’s first electric mixer. Lillian Moller Gilbreth, mother to 12 children, later invented another electric mixer. But it wasn’t really until the 1940s that these machines began to be used for mixing various drinks.
The Orange Julius
In 1926 Julius Freed opened a juice outlet in Los Angeles. To begin with he sold orange juice at a daily profit of only 20 dollars a day. After five years of struggling along he took the advice of his friend, real estate broker and former chemist Bill Hamlin, and mixed ice, powdered sugar and milk in his juice. Fortunately Julius left out the raw egg that was part of the original ingredients. His sales profits rose fivefold. The predecessor to the smoothie drink Orange Julius had seen the light of day. Today the 80-year old Orange Julius drinks are sold around the world.
