The first comprehensive account of one of Switzerland's most innovative electrical appliance companies and its role in industrial design
For more than 70 years, the Swiss company Therma produced electronic appliances ranging from irons and stoves to refrigerators and kitchens. The company's history coincides with the decades of wide-ranging modernization of the Global North over the course of electrification. Therma did not simply submit to this process, but rather actively sought to affirm its competitive edge. Innovations in the field of electric cooking were particularly targeted at the modern housewife—through the gender roles invoked by this image, societal boundaries of the time become visible and legible. This publication offers the first comprehensive account of the history of Therma and its role in the development of industrial design from Art Nouveau to modernism, presented in six chapters filled with a wide range of previously unpublished illustrations.
STATUS: Forthcoming | 2/10/2026
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Therma Swiss Pioneer of Electric Appliances 1904–1978
Published by Lars Müller Publishers. By Claude Lichtenstein.
The first comprehensive account of one of Switzerland's most innovative electrical appliance companies and its role in industrial design
For more than 70 years, the Swiss company Therma produced electronic appliances ranging from irons and stoves to refrigerators and kitchens. The company's history coincides with the decades of wide-ranging modernization of the Global North over the course of electrification. Therma did not simply submit to this process, but rather actively sought to affirm its competitive edge. Innovations in the field of electric cooking were particularly targeted at the modern housewife—through the gender roles invoked by this image, societal boundaries of the time become visible and legible. This publication offers the first comprehensive account of the history of Therma and its role in the development of industrial design from Art Nouveau to modernism, presented in six chapters filled with a wide range of previously unpublished illustrations.
