Toast is a food item that is eaten and enjoyed by many cultures around the world, toasters being the quintessential fixture to provide the crunchy, delicious exterior on a slice of bread. The extraordinary invention of the toaster at first may seem a petty and minuscule achievement in comparison to the atom bomb or the computer. But, upon closer examination, the significance of the toaster is revealed as a commonly used fixture, certainly much more than the atom bomb and maybe even as much as the computer. No one person can claim to have invented the toaster and large improvements to the toaster continued far past its conception, and so, the history of toasters will be covered in a rather broad spectrum. There were numerous designs, all seeking to be the new and better toaster. The toaster is an invention which has revolutionized the twentieth century thanks to the culmination of years of toaster development, putting even more wonder into Wonder Bread and becoming an ubiquitous household appliance on the American kitchen counter. It is still a more or less necessary tool in the creation of breakfast and will likely be around for quite a while longer.
Need and Opportunity
Toasted bread is something that has been around for several centuries and their are several reasons as to why one would want to toast bread. From archaeology and history, “early civilizations placed bread over an open fire in order to keep the bread from growing mold” (McNulty). This makes sense, because in terms of practicality, the process of toasting increases the longevity of the bread in question’s edible period by discouraging mold growth. And, beyond preserving bread for a longer period of time, heating the bread makes it a more sturdy and reliable surface for toppings, and improves the texture of stale bread. Toasting was most certainly a practical and delicious process to apply to bread.
In addition, methods of toasting bread prior to the toaster were not anywhere near as consistent as the toaster. There was a need for something better prior to the toaster, and so it came about.
The toaster as we know it today, the invention which addressed the desire to toast bread, was most officially invented by Charles Strite during the first world war, addressed Strite’s desire for unburnt toast in the cafeteria of his workplace. To solve the root cause of the burnt toast, the necessity of an attentive person to flip or remove the bread once toasted to the ideal doneness, Strite created the pop-up toaster, patented October 18, 1921, that took away the toast’s dependence on the human element. This resulted in all around better toast for nearly everyone.
Research
In the past, bread was toasted over a fire, but temperature could not so easily be controlled, a rather large problem. McNulty said on the topic, “Temperature could not be controlled, and the bread had to be turned manually.” This was certainly true, as before toasters, bread was toasted with a variety of methods that did not give an as reliable or consistent toasting of bread. For instance, bread used to be toasted directly over a open fire. Later, there was an advancement in that toasters were placed in a wire rack and then placed on a fire, but fire is a heat source that can be terribly hard to control and hot spots can burn the toast or toast one area more than another. This problem was solved with electricity, and as electricity became available and used more and more widely, electric toasters came to be invented.
A material available to Strite was Nichrome, an alloy of nickel and chromium, which had been recently invented in 1905 and could withstand high temperatures without being melted. Nichrome could be heated using electricity, and before Strite came up with the pop-up toaster, earlier toasters were already being manufactured with Nichrome wire.
However, previous toasters still had to be attended to by a human, and a lack of attention by a human was the reason for the burnt toast at Strite’s workplace. Toast was only toasted one side at a time as well, adding even more to inconsistent toasting. The toasters of Strite’s time had much to be improved on.
Planning
The greatest weaknesses of earlier toasters were 1. the lack of a sensor or timing deice which could turn the toaster off when the toast was finished and 2. the need for a human to watch the toast due to the first weakness. Strite planned a toaster that more acutely dealt with these weaknesses than any of its predecessors.
To deal with these major weaknesses, Strite’s toaster possessed a spring that would project the bread away from the heated coils once toasted to the desired level of toastiness. This meant toast could be toasted without a human to watch the toast, and therefore the perfect slice of toast no longer relied on the watchfulness of its human attendant.
Another weakness was that the toast was previously toasted on only one side, often leading to uneven toasting. Strite introduced the solution to this problem by having heating elements on both side of the bread, thus giving a more even toast. With his toaster, Strite had solved probably the largest problems surrounding previous toasters and went beyond that with the dual heating elements. This was Strite’s design for his patent of 1921.
Testing/Prototypes
There were several toasters before Strite’s pop-up toaster. For instance, a few years prior to the patent of the toaster by Strite, bread was toasted by being placed on heated electric coils and then manually flipped, one of the first successful “toasters” which was released in 1909 by General Electric as the D-12. A big advancement towards the creation of the pop-up toaster were the Copeman patents, patented by Hazel Copeman who said to her husband, “Lloyd, couldn’t you invent a toaster that would automatically turn the toast?” (qtd. in “Toaster History – Invention of the Toaster”). Such was an address and what would become the solution of the largest problems of earlier toasters. So, the patents all included a design in which the toast was turned automatically without the need for a human attendant, creating the “Automatic” toaster. Toaster designs following the Copeman patents all had to pay royalties to use the design or find a different way to turn the toast.
Strite’s revolutionary pop-up design, however, became most successful and widespread. It included a timer which could be set by the user that was attached to a spring and would simultaneously turn off the heat and pop the bread up at the end of the designated time. Strite’s toaster was reliable and eliminated the potential problems of a human attendant.
The designs after Strite’s patent continued the evolution of the toaster for the better. More exacting temperature control came about in the late 1920s and was one of these improvements with the insertion of a bimetal sensor in the toaster which would sense the temperature of the heating element and would turn it off once it reached the temperature of the desired level of crunchiness, giving a much more consistent toast than with Strite’s timer. With the invention of the integrated circuit, factors concerning the type of bread and other specifics pertaining to more perfect toast could be read and the level of heat could then be adjusted based on this information. All of these advancements proved to make the toaster an even better product.
A modern toaster with several additional settings and more accurate controls beyond Strite’s original design. (Image courtesy of GoodHousekeeping.com)
Commercialization
Strite’s toaster was originally intended for restaurant use under the name of the Toastmaster, but production was initially slugged because each toaster was handmade. Fortunately, Murray Ireland redesigned Strite’s plans and started toaster mass production in 1925 which improved sales. Toastmaster still exists today, but there are also several rival companies such as Cuisinart, KitchenAid and Sunbeam.
The creation of sliced bread unintentionally helped to promote the sales of toasters, as the two products were and are wonderful and convenient complements to each other. The aesthetic design of the toaster’s outer box also came to be varied, from stainless steel to colored plastic with the invention of heat-resistant plastics in the 1970s, giving the consumer more options and the toaster more appeal. Options which could toast pictures into the bread added yet more appeal to toasters, such as the Hello Kitty toaster.
Hello Kitty toaster. (Image courtesy of CoolShitYouCanBuy.com)
A major obstacle in toaster sales came in the 1930s along with the Great Depression. At that time, the price was $13.50, a veritable luxury for those who struggled just to find a job. Once out of the clutches of the massive economic downturn, toasters continued to be successful, so much so as to become a staple in the average kitchen.
Sources
McNulty, Mary. “Toaster.” How Products Are Made. Advameg, Inc., n.d. Web. 11 June 2010. <http://www.madehow.com/Volume-7/Toaster.html>.“Patent for Bread-Toaster Issued October 18, 1921.” United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Dept. of Commerce, 25 Sept. 2009. Web. 11 June 2010. <http://www.uspto.gov/news/pr/2001/01-46.jsp>.
Platt, Richard. Smithsonian Visual Timeline of Inventions: From the first stone tools to satellites and superconductors. New York: DK Publishing, 1994. Print.
“Toaster History – Invention of the Toaster.” The Great Idea Finder. N.p., 27 Apr. 2007. Web. 11 June 2010. <http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/toaster.htm>.
NOTE: I would have info from additional types of sources, but unfortunately, there was nothing there or nothing more helpful in magazines, videos, and other things besides books and the internet.
