Editing Slow cooker (section)

==History==
Slow cookers achieved popularity in the US during the 1940s, when many women began to work outside the home.<ref name="Smith"/> They could start [[dinner]] cooking in the morning before going to work and finish preparing the meal in the evening when they came home.

The Naxon Utilities Corporation of [[Chicago]], under the leadership of electrical engineer [[Irving Naxon]] (born Irving Nachumsohn), developed the Naxon Beanery All-Purpose Cooker for the purposes of cooking a bean meal.<ref name="Smith">{{cite web |last1=Delgado |first1=Michelle |title=A Brief History of the Crock Pot |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/brief-history-crock-pot-180973643/ |website=Smithsonian |access-date=15 December 2019 |date=26 November 2019}}</ref> Naxon was inspired by a story from his mother which told how back in her native [[Lithuania]]n town, his grandmother made a traditional Jewish stew called [[cholent]] which took several hours to cook in an oven.<ref name="Smith"/><ref>{{cite web|author=Naxon, Lenore|title=My Dad, the Inventor of the Crock Pot|work=Beyond Bubbie|date=8 April 2013|access-date=2 May 2013|url=http://www.beyondbubbie.com/my-dad-the-inventor-of-the-crock-pot/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130701055537/http://www.beyondbubbie.com/my-dad-the-inventor-of-the-crock-pot/|archive-date=1 July 2013}}</ref><ref name = "CNET">{{cite web| url = https://www.cnet.com/news/from-humble-to-high-tech-a-slow-cooker-history/| title = From humble to high tech, a slow cooker history| last = Pilkington| first = Katie| date = January 31, 2014| publisher = [[CNET]]| access-date = December 29, 2016}}</ref> A 1950 advertisement shows a slow cooker called the "Simmer Crock" made by the Industrial Radiant Heat Corp. of [[Gladstone, NJ]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IkYEAAAAMBAJ&q=industrial+radiant+heat+corp.+Gladstone+NJ&pg=PA2 |title=The Rotarian |page=2 |date= April 1950|access-date=2016-11-27}}</ref>

[[The Rival Company]] of Kansas City, Missouri, bought Naxon in 1970, acquiring Naxon's 1940 patent for the bean simmer cooker.<ref name="Smith"/> Rival asked inventor Alex MacMaster, from Boonville, Missouri, to develop Naxon's bean cooker into a large scale production model which could cook an entire family meal, going further than just cooking a bean meal. Alex also designed and produced the mass-production machines for Rival's manufacturing line of the Crock-Pot. The cooker was then reintroduced under the name "Crock-Pot" in 1971.<ref name="Smith"/> In 1974, Rival introduced removable [[stoneware]] inserts, making the appliance easier to clean. The Crock-Pot brand now belongs to [[Newell Brands]].

Other brands of this appliance include [[Cuisinart]], [[General Electric|GE]], [[Hamilton Beach Company|Hamilton Beach]], [[KitchenAid]], [[Magic Chef]], [[West Bend Housewares]], and the now defunct American Electric Corporation.