You never knew how the toast would turn out, even if you watched it.
Posted on 03/31/2009 7:00:02 AM PDT by Daffynition
NO wedding list would be complete without an electric toaster…
The cleverest little kitchen gadget since – well, long before sliced bread surprisingly – celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.
When Frank Shailor, a technician with General Electric, dreamed up his D12 toaster in 1909, it was 20 years before there was such a thing as a sliced loaf.
He invented it so people could still eat bread that was going stale and it was an overnight success. Bits of bread were simply wedged inside the exposed “wire fence”.
Unfortunately, this would prove quite hazardous because the bread had to be turned by hand to make sure both sides were toasted.
After a decade of people getting their fingers burnt came the first covered, pop-up toaster in 1919.
This led to the world’s first automatic electric toaster, the Toastmaster, in 1926.
When Otto Frederick Rohwedder invented a machine to slice bread in 1928, no home could be without a toaster.
The gadget has been through so many incarnations, there is a museum in Kettwig, Germany, with almost every toaster ever made, including the willow-patterned Pan Electric Toastrite and the modernist 1930s Saluta revolving toaster in nickel-plated steel and red Bakelite.
A spokesman for breadmakers Kingsmill said: “Bread has been a staple part of our diet for 6,000 years, but toasting is relatively new and it’s interesting that the process hasn’t changed that much in 100 years.
“The 1926 Toastmaster looks pretty similar to the toasters we have in our kitchens today.”
You never knew how the toast would turn out, even if you watched it.
That’s a threatening thingie! We would just cook the bread in a little of the bacon drippings. It wasn’t exactly “toast,” but it was hot and crispy!
Buffing wheel?
Is that for waxing your car?
When the wifey and I bought our Kirby in 1982 we had the option of buying the car waxing attatchments.
We passed on that one.
By the way. Does anyone know where I can contact a Fuller Brush agent? The hairbrush I bought in 1976 is losing bristles. And since I have a lifetime guarantee.....
That is a neat toaster.
My mother has a toaster that she got when she married almost 48 years ago. Nice solid chromed steel. Moves the bread down slowly when you put it in, and one time she had to get that motor fixed.
I’ve never had a toaster that lasted more than five years. The present one is approaching that, but four months after I bought it, the inner elements wouldn’t heat, and we have to flip our bread to get it toasted because I refuse to buy another until this one’s dead.
At some point this thread will be toast
I suspect that if you contact them, they'll make good on your hairbrush.
A beautiful Pan Electric Toastrite in Blue Willow recently sold for more than a thousand dollars on ebay. I would lurve to have one.
My paternal grandparents were married in 1932. My grandfather bought a new GE Monitor Top refrigerator that year.
He died in 1970; my grandma died in 2003. The refrigerator is still working (perfectly!) at my aunt and uncle's shop.
I already have first dibs on it if they want to get rid of it (they have no kids).
Janet Blair & Red Skelton
Chickens and Toast, please
I heard this guy on a morning show and almost drove off the road when he got to the French toast part. Funny stuff.
bttt
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