What is "dumbwaiter"

1749, an article of furniture, from dumb (adj.) + waiter (apparently because it serves as a waiter but is silent). As a movable platform for passing dishes, etc., up and down from one room (especially a basement kitchen) to another, from 1847.

n. 1 (context obsolete English) a table or set of trays on rollers used for serving food 2 (context obsolete English) a lazy Susan 3 A small elevator used to move food etc. from one floor of a building to another.

n. a small elevator used to convey food (or other goods) from one floor of a building to another [syn: food elevator]

Dumbwaiter (lit. "silent waiter") typically refers to a small freight elevator.

It may also refer to:

• a serving tray on wheels, the original use
• a Lazy Susan, a small rotating table serving food around a table or between rooms
• The Dumb Waiter, a one-act play by Harold Pinter
• Dumb Waiters, an album by The Korgis

A dumbwaiter is a small freight elevator (or lift) intended to carry objects rather than people. Dumbwaiters found within modern structures, including both commercial, public and private buildings, are often connected between multiple floors. When installed in restaurants, schools, kindergartens, hospitals, retirement homes or in private homes, the lifts generally terminate in a kitchen.

The term seems to have been popularized in the United States in the 1840s, after the model of earlier "dumbwaiters" now known as serving trays and lazy Susans. The mechanical dumbwaiter was invented by George W. Cannon, a New York inventor. Cannon first filed for the patent of a brake system (US Patent no. 260776) that could be used for a dumbwaiter on January 6, 1883. Cannon later filed for the patent on the mechanical dumbwaiter (US Patent No. 361268) on February 17, 1887. Cannon reportedly generated a vast amount of royalties from the dumbwaiter patents until his death in 1897.