Food

The Fascination of the Toaster

I often think that the bread set before me at a restaurant is a sign of what’s to come. What better way to welcome guests than with a basket of warm, freshly baked bread. It surely sets the tone. What about if you’re at home? How I love to start the day with some warm toast, fresh out of the toaster smothered with peanut butter - my comfort food.  Getting past my love of good bread and peanut butter, I come back to what makes my morning delight possible - and that is the toaster.

The toaster was developed as a way for prolonging the life of bread, very popular in the Roman Times. The first electric toaster was invented in 1893 by Crompton and Co (UK) in Great Britain, and was reinvented in the US in 1909. During these early stages, you could only toast one side of the bread at a time and a person needed to turn it off manually when the toast looked done. Toasters with timers, also called pop-up toasters were developed by Charles Strite in 1919. Toasters became even more popular when the bread slicer was invented in 1912 and further by Wonderbread in 1930.

All in all, the fascination of bread, toasters and sliced bread has caught the attention of many - and today there are both exhibits at museums and online museums dedicated to the evolution of the toaster. To take a walk through pictures of the history of toasters visit The Cyber Toaster Museum. If you are in the need of a new toaster, you might want to check out The Gourmet Kitchen for toasters in all price ranges.

Photo Credit: Toaster Museum

Tagged with: bread, Cyber Toaster Museum, history, toaster