Lazy Susan

A Lazy Susan (or Lazy Suzy) is a rotating tray (turntable) which is usually placed in the centre of a circular table enabling diners to easily share food.

The origin of the invention and the name is now lost in the mists of time. It was originally grouped under the variety of devices known as dumbwaiters, and this term started being applied to rotating trays around the 1760s, although it was applied to a number of other food-serving methods including wheeled serving trays and by 1840s America, to small lifts carrying food between floors. The success of the mechanical dumbwaiter invented by George W Cannon in 1887, saw the other meanings of the term be replaced by this single meaning.

The invention of the ‘Lazy Susan’ has been credited (amongst others) to the Oneida Community in the USA, where they employed it as part of their communist and utopianist ideal of making food easily and equally available to all. The use of the name dates to the Boston Journal in 1903 when it is first mentioned in a story about the Scottish carpenter, Laurie, who made one to the design provided by a customer. Henry Ford used one on his camping trips in the 1920s to avoid having to bring large contingents of servants along for his guests. The term was added to Webster’s Dictionary in 1933.