Notations About Our Brave Little Toasters– Jaan Kolk

Kyle McCulloch — Look at the one on the left flaunting her wealth with a four slicer! Conspicuous consumption!

Last week I posted this on Facebook and said:

WHEN mankind emerged from the primordial ooze that was that was the 1940s, homes began a rapid upgrade. The Western nations’ economies grew in tandem with technology, and the benefits began to enter the home in the form of appliances that promised to transform the household. Now you could own a toaster – oh, the possibilities!

I had comments such:

Ted Hurdis You must be rich owning a four slice toaster. Hahaha

Theresa Fritz I am so glad times have changed. Imagine is your highlight is to be that excited over a toaster?

Jeff Atkinson Theresa… I can recall some equally enraptured Facebook posts from more than a few friends the day they got their Hotpot a few years back. 😉

Roy Rogers I nearly nuked our kitchen in the early 60’s thanks to one of those toasters.
Buttered the bread b4 toasting.
Yep. The sheep dog phoned 999.

Greg Nephin The woman in the picture looks pretty happy.. I think I just figured out my birthday present for the wife.

Myke Adaptiv

this is the toaster i got when I had my first place. nearly burned the apartment down several times with it.

And then Ottawa historian began submitting cool facts,…..

Image may contain: text that says 'Housekeeping Easy. for time been under- that electrical which experimenting promise English, clude water switch purposes, bring number of devices that would effect housekeeping. unfulfilled. have forging and gratifying results. Complete now being manufactured by which immense duction in the labor of household enjoyed. electric kettle, which boila few minutes after turned, and by which business hurry his own trouble. Tbere toaster, and in the eleçtric prepared on and pan- dispatch. electric ironing electric heaters much admired electric greatest electric grill turned complement warmera for efficiency be kept arranged that any day Commercial Advertiser. [New' — 1892–

Jaan Kolk A toast to Albert Marsh! I think that in general, the lone inventor is a romantic myth. Most inventions are the culmination of many small contributions. Often, the “inventor” credited had, one the one hand, foresaw something that could be easily predicted but, on the other hand, did not have the means to produce a really useful version. In those cases, the real inventor was the one who came up with the small innovation that made the thing practical.

As far back as the 1880s people foresaw various electrical appliances that used resistive heating, and claimed inventions, but none of those things really came to be in a meaningful way until the nickel-chrome alloy known as nichrome or chromel was developed in 1905. So here’s to Albert Marsh, the real inventor of the toaster!

https://lflb.passitdown.com/stories/42314

Jaan Kolk Linda, your post sent me looking into the history of the toaster, and I came across this win-a-toaster jingle contest from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sept. 24, 1909. The toaster appears to be the 1909 General Electric model pictured on John Desmond’s page.

The toaster was also for sale for $4.00 (with a monthly payment plan) including cord and plug. Or, if you already had their iron, you could use its cord and just buy the toaster for $3.00. That brought back childhood memories of old irons and kettles with detachable cords. To the extent that I had thought about it at all, I guess I thought it was just for easier maintenance, as the cord might fail before the appliance did, but seeing the picture in Desmond’s article made a light come on!

In the early years of electricity, there was no standard power outlet, and the “plug” was typically something that screwed into a lamp socket (which *was* standardized.) To avoid twisting the chord excessively, one would screw the “plug” into the lamp socket before plugging the other end into the appliance, so the detachable cord was a great convenience.

Have you had toast in England?

Jaan Kolk Linda Seccaspina, oh there is toast in England – I’ve had it. It is served dead cold; they have special racks to speed up the cooling. If you want it warm, that’s “fried bread” – but it’s greasy.

I believe it was George Bernard Shaw who said that England and America are two countries divided by a common language.

Jaan Kolk Question that just came to me: could it be said that the electric toaster was the greatest thing since sliced bread?