Before electricity, people toasted bread over the hearth. They put a slice of bread in a metal rack. The rack had a handle. They had to hold the bread over the flame. When it was brown, they flipped it over. Bread often caught fire. Aren’t you glad you have a toaster?
The first toaster was invented in 1893 by Alan MacMasters. It didn’t look like today’s toasters. Basically, it was electrical coils on a stand. You leaned the bread against the coils. There was a little rail on each side. The rails kept the slices of bread from sliding off. You had to watch carefully. When the bread was brown, you turned it over. It was easy to burn your fingers.
The automatic bread turner was invented in 1913. You turned the toast without touching it. But you still had to pull the toast from the hot machine. A toaster called the Flopper tried to fix this problem in the 1920s. A metal door leaned against each side of the bread. When the bread was done, you let the door down and the toast flopped onto the plate. Sometimes it flopped right to the floor!
Today, toast pops up when it’s done. The pop-up toaster was invented in 1919. A timer told the toaster when to pop the toast. Charles Strite came up with this idea. His machine was called the Toastmaster. By the 1930s, it had a heat sensor to turn off the toaster when it got hot enough. Its box had these words: “You do not have to Watch it — the Toast Can’t Burn.”
But you could still burn your fingers. In the 1970s, the plastic toaster was invented. The inside was still hot metal, but the outside stayed cool. Companies also made wider slots, so people could toast bagels.
In the 21st century, there are microchips in toasters. They can be programmed to toast in a certain way. You can program the toaster to adjust for frozen bread or a pastry. Some of the fanciest new toasters are using an old idea. Like the Flopper, they push the toast down onto a plate instead of popping it up. Maybe they’ll be able to keep it off the floor this time.
