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.”
I have a collection of antique toasters. They all work perfectly. LOL
If you need a new toaster you have two choices, get married or open a bank account.
After I posted I went to his web page and YouTube to see what I could find. I had no idea that Big Butter Jesus was real! There’s a funny video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq01UYiMyHg. Stay ‘til the end, tho you may have to be a certain age to understand it.
Do you know how much effort it took to take an appliance that lasts for 50 years and get a copy that lasts two years!
Nowadays, as a recent cartoon showed, you can buy a toaster and get a bank!
You can tell that my father was obviously a man of much taste until or unless it came to replacing a toaster. Me, I would have preferred the classic Sunbeam T-35 "Radiant Control" toaster . . . the cross-slit model into which you simply placed your bread and voila! it descended automatically and arose slowly, bringing up the most perfect toast, bar none.
Cases in point:
---They got an original GE swivel-top vacuum cleaner as a wedding present. The monster plotzed in 1962 . . . bingo! Dad replaces it with an Electrolux Model F. It probably lasted well enough beyond 1973, when my mother---about to remarry (she was widowed)---swapped it for the first (blue) of the Lux square-tank restylings, a machine that lasted until the day my stepfather died in 2003.
P.S. I did mean monster---in plain English, that 1950 swiveltop was a first class piece of crapola; of course, I'm biased . . . I fell in love with my grandmother's original Hoover Constellation, the swiveltop of 1952 . . . any kid who didn't love a vacuum cleaner that resembled the planet Saturn was missing something upstairs . . . and by the way, they're making the Connie again . . .
---They got a horrid GE "Triple-Whip" kitchen mixer . . . horrid performer, horrid racket, horrid pretentiousness (its three beaters never did half what a good Mixmaster pair would get you), you name it. Tolerated it until she burned out at last in 1962. Bingo! Replacement: Sunbeam Mixmaster Model 12C. The last of the classics. On which yours truly also happened to have learnt to cook . . . and she lasted until I learnt the hard way what my mother never thought of doing with her, namely lubing her regularly (two drops of 3-in-1 oil in the appropriate tiny motor holes would have done it), and the poor girl seized on me smack dab in the middle of a carrot cake. (I got 12C---or, the Mixerbird, as I called her as a kid, since when you twisted the speed dial to fourth speed the tail fins made the machines profile resemble the profile of the original Thunderbird---after my mother died in 1991, since my stepfather knew about as much about cooking and baking as I know about animal husbandry . . . )
(That'll be Model 12C on the right, showing obvious class over that putrid chrome-version Brady Bunch Mixmaster on the left . . . )
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OMG how absolutely delightful, and to think that I had a matched set of frosted pop tarts as part of my politically-incorrect breakfast this morning!
You’ll just never know when a stoat will pop up :-)
Thank you so much for the ping to this essential thread.
My name is Karee Barrett, and I’m the artist of this little watercolor “Ye Olde Toaster Shoppe”.
Although I am very flattered you like my art, and some of us do share a love of toasters, I feel the need to post something here, because this drawing is hotlinked from my webpage, and since my name is on this painting... I’d like it known that I do not support this website in any way, shape or form.
In fact this toasty little drawing is now available for sale as a greeting card. All proceeds support Organizing for America. You can purchase it here: http://www.zazzle.com/ye_olde_toaster_shoppe_card-137096197107169161
Thank you.
The artist is a poster on the Daily Kos.
She posted a there because she's feeling a little bit sick to her stomach that her artwork appears on FR.
Thanks for the heads-up raybbr.
Hi Karee
I’m pinging the mods for you; I am sure they can remove that image for you.
You’re a very talented artist ... anyone who likes old toasters is OK in my book.
Daffy
Am I on the right thread? Sheep crop circles or something?
I would appreciate it being removed, thank you for your respect.
Yes you’re right. And I posted why I felt sick about it.
You’re using my art illegally, and I like more kinds of toast than just white.
And it’s my art, I’m allowed to ask for it to be pulled. You’ll also notice I asked nice, I didn’t try to cause any problems.
I just would like it taken down, respectfully. Thank you.
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