"I'm quitting. ...I'm going to open up an appliance store, I've always really been into toasters."
Dane Cook, actor and comedian
In 1919 Charles Strite, a factory worker in a manufacturing plant in Stillwater, Minnesota, became annoyed by the burned toast on offer in the factory canteen and set about trying to solve the problem.
Originally, toasting bread would have been carried out over a fire, but labor-saving devices to help with this procedure followed, and the first electric toaster was invented in 1893. It worked by passing electricity through coils of Nichrome" (a nickel-chromium alloy), which caused them to give off heat, thus toasting the bread. Early toasters were sold as a status symbol, even before electricity was common in homes, with the power cord designed to connect to a light socket, the only electrical connection any house would have had.
Strite's innovation was to add a clockwork timer and springs in addition to the heating coils. It was designed so that after a set amount of cooking time, the heating elements were switched off and the perfectly cooked toast was ejected.
Originally intended for sale to commercial kitchens, Strife's invention was adapted for home use, released in the mid-1920s, and dubbed the "Toastmaster." It soon became a global success and, by 1930, was selling at a rate of more than 1.2 million per year.
