Mug
Encyclopedia
A mug is a sturdily built type of cup often used for drinking hot beverages, such as coffee
, tea
, or hot chocolate
. Mugs, by definition, have handles and often hold a larger amount of fluid
than other types of cup. Usually a mug holds approximately 12 fluid ounce
s (350 ml) of liquid; double a tea cup. A mug is a less formal style of drink container and is not usually used in formal place settings, where a teacup
or coffee cup is preferred. Shaving mugs can be used to assist in wet shaving
.
Whereas ancient mugs were usually carved in wood or bone or shaped of clay, most modern ones are made of ceramic
materials such as earthenware
, bone china
, porcelain
or stoneware
. Some are made from strengthened glass, such as Pyrex
. Other materials, including plastic, steel and enamel
ed metal are preferred where break resistance and reduced weight are at a premium, such as for camper
s. Techniques such as silk screen printing or decal
s are used to apply decorations; these are fired onto the mug to ensure permanence.
The oldest drinking vessels recovered by archaeologists were made of bones, they hardly had a handle and thus are not mugs. The first mugs are related to the Neolithic
Stone Age
and pottery
vessels which were found in China and Japan and date to about 10000 BCE. The first pottery was shaped by hands and was later facilitated by invention of the potter's wheel
(date unknown, between 6,500 and 3000 BCE). It was relatively easy to add a handle to a cup in the process thus producing a mug. For example, a rather advanced, decorated clay mug from 4000–5000 BCE was found in Greece. The biggest disadvantage of those clay mugs was thick walls unfit for the mouth. The walls were thinned
with development of metalworking techniques. Metal mugs were produced from bronze, silver, gold and even lead, starting from roughly 2000 BCE and were hard to use with hot drinks. Wooden mugs were produced probably from the oldest time, but most of them could not be preserved to the present time. The invention of porcelain
around 600 CE in China brought a new era of thin-walled mugs suitable both for cold and hot liquids, which we enjoy today.
with a wide spout where hot water is poured in, and this is where it differs from a shaving mug, which has no spout. Both shaving scuttles and mugs usually have a handle, but some have none. Shaving mugs often look like a standard mug, however, some also have a built in brush rest, so the brush does not sit in lather. Modern versions of the scuttle are in limited production, usually by independent potters
working in small volumes.
At the top of the scuttle or mug is a soap holder. Traditionally, it was used with a hard block of shaving soap (rather than soft soap or cream) and therefore had drain holes at the bottom. Later scuttles and mugs do not include the holes, and thus can be used with creams and soft soaps. Some scuttles and mugs have concentric circles on the bottom, which retain some water thus helping to build lather.
In use, the shaving brush is dunked into the wide spout, allowing it to soak into the water and heat up. The soap is placed in the soap holder. When needed, one can take the brush and brush it against the soap, bringing up a layer of lather; excess water is drained back. This allows conservation of water and soap, whilst retaining enough heat to ensure a long shave.
, such as earthenware
, bone china
, porcelain
or glass.
A travel mug (introduced in the 1980s) generally employs thermal insulation properties for transporting hot or cold liquids. Similar to a vacuum flask
, a travel mug is usually well-insulated and completely enclosed to prevent spillage, but will generally have a opening in the cover through which the contents can be consumed during transportation without spillage. Mugs with inner and outer wall but not vacuum treated is generally called a double wall mug. Usually stainless steel will be used for the inner wall while outer wall can be stainless steel, plastic or even embed with other materials.
technique, which applies the mixture through a fine woven mesh, which is stretched on a frame and has a mask of desired shape. This technique produces a thin homogeneous coating; however, if smoothness is not required, the ceramic mixture is painted directly with a brush. Another, more complex alternative is to coat the paper with a photographic emulsion, photoprint the image and then cure the emulsion with ultraviolet light.
After drying the printed paper, called a decal
can be stored indefinitely. When a decal is applied to the mug, it is first softened in warm water. This detaches from paper the gelatin cover with the printed image and this cover is transferred onto the mug. The mug is then annealed at 700–750 °C that softens the top surface of the mug thereby embedding the image into it.
are usually a ceramic drinking vessels originating in mid-19th century tropical themed restaurants and tiki bar
s. The term "Tiki mugs" is a generic, blanket term for sculptural drink ware that depict imagery from Polynesia, Micronesia or Melanesia, and of more recent is also used to describe these mugs depicting anything tropical, wahines, surf or other images or themes connected to the escapism and cultures those bars draw inspiration from and conjure. Often sold as souvenirs, Tiki Mugs are highly collectable. Modern manufactures include Tiki Farm and Muntiki. Individual artists such as Van Tiki, also produced limited one-of-a-kind hand sculpted mugs.
A puzzle mug called fuddling cups consists of three mugs connected through their walls and handles. The inner holes in the mugs walls are designed in such a way that the mugs must be emptied in a unique sequence, or they will drain.
The Pythagorean cup
(see picture) contains a small siphon
hidden in a rod placed in the mug center. The cup holds liquid if filled below the height of the rod, but once filled above that level, it drains all liquid through the siphon to a hole in its base.
The whistle mug or hubblebubble is not a puzzle but rather an amusement mug. It has a hollow handle which can be blown through the mug like a whistle. With an empty mug, only one note is emitted, whereas a filled mug produces melodious trills and warblings.
mug changes appearance when a hot beverage is poured into it. These mugs are often intended as gadgets.
The mug serves as one of the most popular examples of homeomorphism
in topology
. Two objects are homeomorphic if one can be deformed into the other without cutting or gluing. Thus in topology, a mug is equivalent (homeomorphic) to a doughnut (torus
) as it can be reshaped into a doughnut by a continuous deformation, without cutting, breaking, punching holes or gluing. Another topological example is a mug with two handles, which is equivalent to a double torus – an object resembling number 8. A mug without a handle, that is a bowl
or a beaker
, is topologically equivalent to a saucer
, which is more evident as a raw clay bowl can be flattened on a potter's wheel
.
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
, tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
, or hot chocolate
Hot chocolate
Hot chocolate is a heated beverage typically consisting of shaved chocolate, melted chocolate or cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and sugar...
. Mugs, by definition, have handles and often hold a larger amount of fluid
Fluid
In physics, a fluid is a substance that continually deforms under an applied shear stress. Fluids are a subset of the phases of matter and include liquids, gases, plasmas and, to some extent, plastic solids....
than other types of cup. Usually a mug holds approximately 12 fluid ounce
Fluid ounce
A fluid ounce is a unit of volume equal to about 28.4 mL in the imperial system or about 29.6 mL in the US system. The fluid ounce is distinct from the ounce, which measures mass...
s (350 ml) of liquid; double a tea cup. A mug is a less formal style of drink container and is not usually used in formal place settings, where a teacup
Teacup
A teacup is a small cup, with or without a handle, generally a small one that may be grasped with the thumb and one or two fingers. It is typically made of a ceramic material. It is usually part of a set, composed of a cup and a matching saucer. These in turn may be part of a tea set in...
or coffee cup is preferred. Shaving mugs can be used to assist in wet shaving
Shaving
Shaving is the removal of hair, by using a razor or any other kind of bladed implement, to slice it down to the level of the skin. Shaving is most commonly practiced by men to remove their facial hair and by women to remove their leg and underarm hair...
.
Whereas ancient mugs were usually carved in wood or bone or shaped of clay, most modern ones are made of ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
materials such as earthenware
Earthenware
Earthenware is a common ceramic material, which is used extensively for pottery tableware and decorative objects.-Types of earthenware:Although body formulations vary between countries and even between individual makers, a generic composition is 25% ball clay, 28% kaolin, 32% quartz, and 15%...
, bone china
Bone china
Bone china is a type of soft-paste porcelain that is composed of bone ash, feldspathic material and kaolin. It has been defined as ware with a translucent body containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from animal bone and calculated calcium phosphate...
, porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
or stoneware
Stoneware
Stoneware is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic ware with a fine texture. Stoneware is made from clay that is then fired in a kiln, whether by an artisan to make homeware, or in an industrial kiln for mass-produced or specialty products...
. Some are made from strengthened glass, such as Pyrex
Pyrex
Pyrex is a brand name for glassware, introduced by Corning Incorporated in 1915.Originally, Pyrex was made from borosilicate glass. In the 1940s the composition was changed for some products to tempered soda-lime glass, which is the most common form of glass used in glass bakeware in the US and has...
. Other materials, including plastic, steel and enamel
Vitreous enamel
Vitreous enamel, also porcelain enamel in U.S. English, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C...
ed metal are preferred where break resistance and reduced weight are at a premium, such as for camper
Camper
Camper can be one of several things:* a person who engages in camping.** in online games, a player who stays in one area of the game world, see camping ....
s. Techniques such as silk screen printing or decal
Decal
A decal or transfer is a plastic, cloth, paper or ceramic substrate that has printed on it a pattern or image that can be moved to another surface upon contact, usually with the aid of heat or water. The word is short for decalcomania...
s are used to apply decorations; these are fired onto the mug to ensure permanence.
History
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
Stone Age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
and pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
vessels which were found in China and Japan and date to about 10000 BCE. The first pottery was shaped by hands and was later facilitated by invention of the potter's wheel
Potter's wheel
In pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in asma of round ceramic ware. The wheel may also be used during process of trimming the excess body from dried ware and for applying incised decoration or rings of color...
(date unknown, between 6,500 and 3000 BCE). It was relatively easy to add a handle to a cup in the process thus producing a mug. For example, a rather advanced, decorated clay mug from 4000–5000 BCE was found in Greece. The biggest disadvantage of those clay mugs was thick walls unfit for the mouth. The walls were thinned
with development of metalworking techniques. Metal mugs were produced from bronze, silver, gold and even lead, starting from roughly 2000 BCE and were hard to use with hot drinks. Wooden mugs were produced probably from the oldest time, but most of them could not be preserved to the present time. The invention of porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
around 600 CE in China brought a new era of thin-walled mugs suitable both for cold and hot liquids, which we enjoy today.
Shaving mugs and scuttles
A shaving scuttle and shaving mug were developed around the 19th century with the first patent for a shaving mug dating to 1867. As hot water was not common in many households, one way to provide hot lather was to use a scuttle or mug. A traditional scuttle resembles a teapotTeapot
A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in near-boiling water. Tea may be either in a tea bag or loose, in which case a tea strainer will be needed, either to hold the leaves as they steep or to catch the leaves inside the teapot when the tea is poured...
with a wide spout where hot water is poured in, and this is where it differs from a shaving mug, which has no spout. Both shaving scuttles and mugs usually have a handle, but some have none. Shaving mugs often look like a standard mug, however, some also have a built in brush rest, so the brush does not sit in lather. Modern versions of the scuttle are in limited production, usually by independent potters
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
working in small volumes.
At the top of the scuttle or mug is a soap holder. Traditionally, it was used with a hard block of shaving soap (rather than soft soap or cream) and therefore had drain holes at the bottom. Later scuttles and mugs do not include the holes, and thus can be used with creams and soft soaps. Some scuttles and mugs have concentric circles on the bottom, which retain some water thus helping to build lather.
In use, the shaving brush is dunked into the wide spout, allowing it to soak into the water and heat up. The soap is placed in the soap holder. When needed, one can take the brush and brush it against the soap, bringing up a layer of lather; excess water is drained back. This allows conservation of water and soap, whilst retaining enough heat to ensure a long shave.
General design and functions
Much of the mug design aims at thermal insulation: the thick walls of a mug, as compared to the thinner walls of teacups, insulate the beverage to prevent it from cooling or warming quickly. The mug bottom is often not flat, but either concave or has an extra rim, to reduce the thermal contact with the surface on which a mug is placed. These features often leave a characteristic O-shaped stain on the surface. Finally, the handle of a mug keeps the hand away from the hot sides of a mug. The small cross section of the handle reduces heat flow between the liquid and the hand. For the same reason of thermal insulation, mugs are usually made of materials with low thermal conductivityThermal conductivity
In physics, thermal conductivity, k, is the property of a material's ability to conduct heat. It appears primarily in Fourier's Law for heat conduction....
, such as earthenware
Earthenware
Earthenware is a common ceramic material, which is used extensively for pottery tableware and decorative objects.-Types of earthenware:Although body formulations vary between countries and even between individual makers, a generic composition is 25% ball clay, 28% kaolin, 32% quartz, and 15%...
, bone china
Bone china
Bone china is a type of soft-paste porcelain that is composed of bone ash, feldspathic material and kaolin. It has been defined as ware with a translucent body containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from animal bone and calculated calcium phosphate...
, porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
or glass.
A travel mug (introduced in the 1980s) generally employs thermal insulation properties for transporting hot or cold liquids. Similar to a vacuum flask
Vacuum flask
A vacuum flask is an insulating storage vessel which keeps its contents hotter or cooler than its surroundings. Invented by Sir James Dewar in 1892, the vacuum flask consists of two flasks, placed one within the other and joined at the neck...
, a travel mug is usually well-insulated and completely enclosed to prevent spillage, but will generally have a opening in the cover through which the contents can be consumed during transportation without spillage. Mugs with inner and outer wall but not vacuum treated is generally called a double wall mug. Usually stainless steel will be used for the inner wall while outer wall can be stainless steel, plastic or even embed with other materials.
Decoration
As a ubiquitous desktop item, the mug is often used as an object of art or advertisement; some mugs are rather decorations than drinking vessels. Carving had been traditionally applied to mugs in the ancient times. Deforming a mug into unusual shape is used sometimes. However, the most popular decoration technique nowadays is printing on mugs, which is usually performed as follows: Ceramic powder is mixed with dyes of chosen color and a plasticizer. Then it is printed on a gelatin-coated paper using a traditional screen-printingScreen-printing
Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate...
technique, which applies the mixture through a fine woven mesh, which is stretched on a frame and has a mask of desired shape. This technique produces a thin homogeneous coating; however, if smoothness is not required, the ceramic mixture is painted directly with a brush. Another, more complex alternative is to coat the paper with a photographic emulsion, photoprint the image and then cure the emulsion with ultraviolet light.
After drying the printed paper, called a decal
Decal
A decal or transfer is a plastic, cloth, paper or ceramic substrate that has printed on it a pattern or image that can be moved to another surface upon contact, usually with the aid of heat or water. The word is short for decalcomania...
can be stored indefinitely. When a decal is applied to the mug, it is first softened in warm water. This detaches from paper the gelatin cover with the printed image and this cover is transferred onto the mug. The mug is then annealed at 700–750 °C that softens the top surface of the mug thereby embedding the image into it.
Tiki mugs
Tiki mugsTiki mugs
Tiki mugs are ceramic drink ware originating in mid-century American tiki bars and tropical themed restaurants, believed to have been pioneered by Don the Beachcomber....
are usually a ceramic drinking vessels originating in mid-19th century tropical themed restaurants and tiki bar
Tiki bar
A tiki bar is an exotic–themed drinking establishment that serves elaborate cocktails, especially rum-based mixed drinks such as the "mai tai" or "Zombie cocktail". Tiki bars are aesthetically defined by their Tiki culture décor which is based upon a romanticized conception of primitive tropical...
s. The term "Tiki mugs" is a generic, blanket term for sculptural drink ware that depict imagery from Polynesia, Micronesia or Melanesia, and of more recent is also used to describe these mugs depicting anything tropical, wahines, surf or other images or themes connected to the escapism and cultures those bars draw inspiration from and conjure. Often sold as souvenirs, Tiki Mugs are highly collectable. Modern manufactures include Tiki Farm and Muntiki. Individual artists such as Van Tiki, also produced limited one-of-a-kind hand sculpted mugs.
Storage
A popular way to store mugs is on a 'mug tree', a wooden or metal pole mounted on a round base and fitted with pegs to hang mugs by their handles. There are also racks designed for hanging mugs so that they are ready to hand. Those are especially useful on ships in high waves.Puzzle mugs
A puzzle mug is a mug which has some trick preventing normal operation. One example is a mug with multiple holes in the rim, making it impossible to drink from it in the normal way. Although it is tempting to grasp the body of the mug covering the visible holes and drink the liquid in the usual manner, this would pour the liquid through hidden perforations near the mug's top. The solution is to cover the holes in the rim with hands, but to drink not through the top, but through a "secret" hole in the hollow handle.A puzzle mug called fuddling cups consists of three mugs connected through their walls and handles. The inner holes in the mugs walls are designed in such a way that the mugs must be emptied in a unique sequence, or they will drain.
The Pythagorean cup
Pythagorean cup
A Pythagorean cup is a form of drinking cup which forces its user to imbibe only in moderation. Credited to Pythagoras of Samos, it allows the user to fill the cup with wine up to a certain level. If the user fills the cup only up to that level he may enjoy his drink in peace...
(see picture) contains a small siphon
Siphon
The word siphon is sometimes used to refer to a wide variety of devices that involve the flow of liquids through tubes. But in the English language today, the word siphon usually refers to a tube in an inverted U shape which causes a liquid to flow uphill, above the surface of the reservoir,...
hidden in a rod placed in the mug center. The cup holds liquid if filled below the height of the rod, but once filled above that level, it drains all liquid through the siphon to a hole in its base.
The whistle mug or hubblebubble is not a puzzle but rather an amusement mug. It has a hollow handle which can be blown through the mug like a whistle. With an empty mug, only one note is emitted, whereas a filled mug produces melodious trills and warblings.
Thermochromic mug
The thermochromicThermochromism
Thermochromism is the ability of substance to change color due to a change in temperature. A mood ring is an excellent example of this, but it has many other uses such as baby bottles and kettles. Thermochromism is one of several types of chromism.The two basic approaches are based on liquid...
mug changes appearance when a hot beverage is poured into it. These mugs are often intended as gadgets.
In science
Homeomorphism
In the mathematical field of topology, a homeomorphism or topological isomorphism or bicontinuous function is a continuous function between topological spaces that has a continuous inverse function. Homeomorphisms are the isomorphisms in the category of topological spaces—that is, they are...
in topology
Topology
Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...
. Two objects are homeomorphic if one can be deformed into the other without cutting or gluing. Thus in topology, a mug is equivalent (homeomorphic) to a doughnut (torus
Torus
In geometry, a torus is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three dimensional space about an axis coplanar with the circle...
) as it can be reshaped into a doughnut by a continuous deformation, without cutting, breaking, punching holes or gluing. Another topological example is a mug with two handles, which is equivalent to a double torus – an object resembling number 8. A mug without a handle, that is a bowl
Bowl (vessel)
A bowl is a common open-top container used in many cultures to serve food, and is also used for drinking and storing other items. They are typically small and shallow, although some, such as punch bowls and salad bowls, are larger and often intended to serve many people.Bowls have existed for...
or a beaker
Beaker (drinkware)
A beaker is a beverage container, and a term used in parts of the UK. A beaker is typically a non-disposable plastic or ceramic cup or mug without a handle, much like a laboratory beaker....
, is topologically equivalent to a saucer
Saucer
A saucer is a small type of dishware, a plate that is specifically used with and for supporting a cup – a cylindrical cup intended for coffee or a half-sphere teacup for tea. Additionally, the saucer is a distant cousin to the plate. The saucer has a raised centre with a depression sized to fit a...
, which is more evident as a raw clay bowl can be flattened on a potter's wheel
Potter's wheel
In pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in asma of round ceramic ware. The wheel may also be used during process of trimming the excess body from dried ware and for applying incised decoration or rings of color...
.