On July 18, 1939, John Tjaarda received U.S. Patent No. D115826 on a Combination Kitchen Unit:
Johan Tjaarda was born in the Netherlands on February 4, 1897. He studied aircraft design in the United Kingdom, and then became a pilot in the Royal Netherlands Air Force. Tjaarda emigrated to the United States in 1923, changed his name to John, and he started building custom car bodies. He worked for coachbuilder Locke and Company as a design engineer, then for the Art and Color Division of General Motors with well-known designer Harley Earl. He joined the Briggs Manufacturing Company in 1932 where he continued to work on cars, eventually becoming their chief designer. where he became chief designer over time.
In 1935 Tjaarda designed a “Kitchen of Tomorrow” — a futuristic metal kitchen that featured a circular kitchen island. He also designed the kitchen unit that is the subject of today’s patent of the day. Briggs metal kitchen units and kitchen cabinets were popular for many years.

As a result of a patent dispute, Tjaarda abruptly left Briggs in 1941, and years of legal battles followed. In 1942 he set up his own design studio: John Tjaarda and Associates where he continued as an automotive and industrial designer, trying to design, finance and manufacture his own automobile, the Cortez. In 1961, he joined rocket manufacturer Aerojet General as a technical advisor, but died a year later on March 20, 1962.