Lazy Susan

Alazy Susanis a turntable (rotatingtray) placed on atableorcountertopto aid in distributingfood. Lazy Susans may be made from a variety of materials but are usuallyglass,wood, orplastic. They are circular and placed in the centre of a table to share dishes easily among diners. Owing to the nature ofChinese cuisine, especiallydim sum, they are common at formal Chinese restaurants both inmainland Chinaand abroad. In Chinese, they are known as餐桌转盘(t.餐桌轉盤) (pcānzhuō zhuànpán) or "dinner-table turntables".
It is likely that the explanation of the term "lazy Susan" has been lost to history.Folk etymologiesclaim it as anAmerican invention. According to lore,Thomas Jeffersoninvented the device, which was known as a "dumbwaiter", for his daughter Susan. Regardless of the origins of the name, by 1917 it was advertised inVanity Fairas "Ovington's $8.50 mahogany 'Revolving Server or Lazy Susan'",but the term's use predates both the advertisement and, probably, the country.
Part of the mystery arises from the variety of devices that were grouped under the term "dumb waiter" (today writtendumbwaiter). An early 18th-century British article inThe Gentleman's Magazinedescribes how silent machines had replaced garrulous servants at some tablesand, by the 1750s,Christopher Smartwas praising the "foreign" but discreet devices in verse.It is, however, almost certain that the devices under discussion were wheeledserving trayssimilar to those introduced byThomas Jeffersonto the United States from France,where they were known asétagères.At some point during or before the third quarter of the 18th century, the name dumb waiter also began to be applied to rotating trays.(Jefferson never had a lazy Susan atMonticello, but he did construct a box-shaped rotating book stand and, as part of serving "in the French style", employed a revolving dining-room door whose reverse side supported a number of shelves.). By the 1840s, Americans were applying the term tosmall lifts carrying food between floorsas well.The success ofGeorge W. Cannon's 1887 mechanical dumbwaiter popularised this usage, replacing the previous meanings of "dumbwaiter".
The lazy Susan was initially uncommon enough in the United States for theutopianistOneida Communityto be credited with its invention. They employed the devices as part of their practice of communal living, making food easily and equally available to residents and visitors at meals.An Americanpatentwas issued in 1891 to Elizabeth Howell for "certain new and useful Improvements in Self-Waiting Tables". Howell's device ran more smoothly and did not permitbread crumbsto fall into the space between the lazy Susan and the table.
Despite variousfolk etymologieslinking the name to Jefferson's andEdison's daughters, the earliest use of these "serviettes" or "butler's assistants"being called alazy Susandates to the 1903Boston Journal:
Laurie was a Scottish carpenter who made his "lazy Susan" to the personal specifications of aHingham-area woman. Unfortunately he presented this gift to her too late, which caused her to unleash an abusive tirade upon Laurie. When she finally asked him for the price, he "told her it wasn't for sale, though of course it is".The name was repeated in a 1911Idaho Statesmanarticle – which describes it as "a cousin to the 'curate's assistant', as the English muffin stand is called"– and again in the 1912Christian Science Monitor, which calls the "silver" lazy Susan "the characteristic feature of the self-serving dinner table".By the next year, theLima Daily Newsdescribed an Ohioan "inaugurat[ing] ... the 'Lazy Susan' method of serving".Henry Fordused an enormous one on his camping trips in the 1920s to avoid bringing a full contingent of servants along with his guests.In 1933, the term was added to theWebster's Dictionary.
Unusually, the 1916American Cookerydescribes the device as a German invention:
By 1918,Century Magazinewas already describing the lazy Susan as out of fashion,but beginning in the 1950s its popularity soared once again after the redesign and reintroduction of the lazy Susan by George Hall, an engineer, soy sauce manufacturer, and partner in popular San Francisco-area Chinese restaurants (Johnny Kan's, Ming's of Palo Alto and John Ly's Dining), and the rotating tray became ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants and was used in homes around the globe.The decline in America'sdomestic servicesector afterWorld War Iand its collapse followingWorld War II,combined with the post-warBaby Boom, led to a great demand for them in US households across the country in the 1950s and 1960s. This popularity has had the effect, however, of making them seemkitschin subsequent decades.
The term is infrequently used for the much olderturntablesemployed inpottery wheelsand related tasks like sculpture, modeling, repair work, etc.