Editing Toaster (section)

== History ==
Before the development of the electric toaster, [[sliced bread]] was toasted by placing it in a metal frame or on a long-handled [[toasting fork]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Snodgrass |first=Mary Ellen |title=Encyclopedia of Kitchen History |date=29 November 2004 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-57958-380-4 |page=392}}</ref> and holding it near a [[fire]] or over a kitchen grill.

From the 16th century onward, long-handled forks were used as toasters, "sometimes with fitment for resting on bars of grate or fender."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cameron |first1=Ian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E69nzckoZSoC&q=16th+century+%22toaster%22 |title=Collins Encyclopedia of Antiques |last2=Kingsley-Rowe |first2=Elizabeth |date=1973 |publisher=Collins |isbn=978-0-00-435022-6 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Wrought iron|Wrought-iron]] scroll-ornamented toasters appeared in [[Scotland]] in the 17th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hume |first1=Ivor Noël |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LDexDAAAQBAJ&q=17th+century+toaster |title=The Archaeology of Martin's Hundred: Part 1, Interpretive Studies; Part 2, Artifact Catalog |last2=Hume |first2=Audrey Noel |last3=Hume |first3=Audrey Noël |date=2016-07-18 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-1-5128-1971-7 |language=en}}</ref> Another wrought-iron toaster was documented to be from 18th-century England.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Education |first=Great Britain Board of |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DQUaAQAAIAAJ&dq=16th+century+%22toaster%22&pg=RA1-PA45 |title=Report for the Year 1909-1917 on the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Bethnal Green Museum |date=1911 |language=en}}</ref>

Utensils for toasting bread over open flames appeared in America in the early 19th century, including decorative implements made from wrought iron.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://issuu.com/skinnerinc/docs/2744m-2743t-2757b-wrought-iron |title=The Howard Roth Collection of Early American Iron {{!}} Skinner Auctions 2744M, 2743T and 2757B|work=issuu|access-date=18 July 2017|language=en}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Brödrost - Hallwylska museet - 86976.tif|Toasters before the use of electricity
File:D12cord.jpg|Toaster with an [[Edison screw fitting]], {{circa| 1909}}
File:General Electric Model D-12 toaster, 1910s.jpg|General Electric Model D-12 toaster, from 1910s
</gallery>

=== Development of the heating element ===
The primary technical problem in toaster development at the turn of the 20th century was the development of a [[heating element]] that would be able to sustain repeated heating to red-hot temperatures without breaking or becoming too brittle.{{Citation needed|date=March 2014}} A similar technical challenge had recently been surmounted with the invention of the first successful [[incandescent lightbulb]]s by [[Joseph Swan]] and [[Thomas Edison]]. However, the light bulb took advantage of the presence of a vacuum, something that could not be used for the toaster.

The first stand-alone electric toaster, the Eclipse, was made in 1893 by Crompton & Company of Chelmsford, Essex. Its bare wires toasted bread on one side at a time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Binney |first1=Ruth |title=The Origins of Everyday Things |date=1999 |publisher=Reader's Digest |isbn=978-0-7621-0141-2 |page=47 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q6VtAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref>

The problem of the heating element was solved in 1905 by a young engineer named [[Albert Marsh]], who designed an alloy of [[nickel]] and [[chromium]], which came to be known as [[nichrome]].<ref name="US Patent 811859">{{US patent|811859}}</ref><ref name="Toaster Museum">{{cite web |url=http://www.toaster.org/museum.html |title=The Cyber Toaster Museum |work=Toaster.org |last=Norcross |first=Eric |pages=section "1900–1920" |year=2006 |publisher=The Toaster Museum Foundation |access-date=16 August 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080815211550/http://www.toaster.org/museum.html |archive-date=15 August 2008}}</ref><ref name="George 2003">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SzdrtFSFG6IC&q=%22William+Hoskins%22+high-resistance+wire+electric+heating&pg=PA20 |title=Antique Electric Waffle Irons 1900–1960: A History of the Appliance Industry in 20th Century America |last=George |first=William F. |publisher=Trafford Publishing |year=2003 |page=20 |access-date=16 August 2008 |isbn=1-55395-632-X}}</ref><ref name="Clark">{{Cite journal |url=http://www.toaster.org/hoskins_tragic.html |title=The World's Most Tragic Man Is the One Who Never Starts |last=Clark |first=Neil M. |journal=[[The American (magazine)|The American]] | date=May 1927 |access-date=24 February 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060825063214/http://www.toaster.org/hoskins_tragic.html |archive-date=25 August 2006}}; republished in ''hotwire: The Newsletter of the Toaster Museum Foundation'', vol. 3, no. 3, online edition.</ref>

The first US patent application for an electric toaster was filed by George Schneider of the American Electrical Heater Company of Detroit in collaboration with Marsh.<ref name="Toaster Museum" /><ref>Schneider, George (17 July 1906) "Electric cooker" {{US Patent|825938}}</ref> One of the first applications that the Hoskins company considered for its [[Chromel]] wire was for use in toasters, but the company eventually abandoned such efforts, to focus on making just the wire itself.<ref name="George 2003" />

The first commercially successful electric toaster was introduced by [[General Electric]] in 1909 for the GE model D-12.<ref name="Toaster Museum" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/92299 |title=A Toast to the Toaster... 100 Years Old and Still Going Strong |work=[[Daily Express]] | author=Dana Gloger |date=31 March 2009 |access-date=31 March 2009}}</ref><ref>F. E. Shailor (22 February 1910) "Electric heater" {{US Patent|950058}}</ref>

=== Dual-side toasting and automated pop-up technologies ===
[[File:United States patent 1,394,450, "Bread-Toaster", 1921.pdf|thumb|[[United States patent law|United States patent]] #1,394,450. "Bread-Toaster", patented 18 October 1921 by [[Charles Strite]].]]
In 1913, [[Lloyd Groff Copeman]] and his wife Hazel Berger Copeman applied for various toaster patents, and in that same year, the Copeman Electric Stove Company introduced a toaster with an automatic bread turner.<ref name="lloydcopeman">{{cite web |url=http://www.lloydcopeman.com/biography/bio3.html |title=Lloyd Groff Copeman |author=Copeman, Kent L. |publisher=LloydCopeman.com |access-date=18 October 2011}}</ref> Before this, electric toasters cooked bread on one side, meaning the bread needed to be flipped by hand to cook both sides. Copeman's toaster turned the bread around without having to touch it.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.absolutemichigan.com/dig/michigan/lloyd-groff-copeman-the-patent-man/ |title=Lloyd Groff Copeman: The Patent Man |work=Absolute Michigan |publisher=Leelanau Communications, Inc |date=5 May 2006 |access-date=18 October 2011}}</ref>

The automatic pop-up toaster, which ejects the toast after toasting it, was first patented by [[Charles Strite]] in 1921.<ref>[[:File:United States patent 1,394,450, "Bread-Toaster", 1921.pdf|United States patent 1,394,450, "Bread-Toaster", 1921]]</ref> In 1925, using a redesigned version of Strite's toaster, the Waters Genter Company introduced the Model 1-A-1 Toastmaster,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.toaster.org/tmaster_when.html |title=Toastmaster Toasters: When They Were Made |publisher=Toaster Museum Foundation |access-date=19 October 2011 |archive-date=29 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160929100544/http://www.toaster.org/tmaster_when.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> the first automatic, pop-up, household toaster that could brown bread on both sides simultaneously, set the [[heating element]] on a timer, and eject the toast when finished.{{Citation needed|date=March 2014}}

=== Toasting technology after the 1940s ===
In the 1980s, some high-end U.S. toasters featured automatic toast lowering and raising without the need to operate levers – simply dropping the bread into one of these "elevator toasters",<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kenmore "Elevator" Toaster |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1097260 |access-date=2022-11-23 |website=National Museum of American History |language=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123055545/https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1097260 |archive-date= 2022-11-23 }}</ref> such as the [[Sunbeam Products|Sunbeam]] Radiant Control toaster models made from the late 1940s through the 1990s, began the toasting cycle. These toasters use the mechanically multiplied thermal expansion of the resistance wire in the center element assembly to lower the bread; the inserted slice of bread trips a lever switch to activate the heating elements and their thermal expansion is harnessed to lower the bread.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

When the toast is done, as determined by a small bimetallic sensor actuated by the heat radiating off the toast, the heaters are shut off and the pull-down mechanism returns to its [[Room temperature|room-temperature]] position, slowly raising the finished toast. This sensing of the heat radiating off the toast means that regardless of the type of bread (white or whole grain) or its initial temperature (even frozen), the bread is always toasted to the same consistency.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US2667828A/en | title=US2667828A - Automatic toaster |website=Google Patents |url-status=live |archive-url= https://archive.today/20211128020330/https://patents.google.com/patent/US2667828A/en |archive-date= 28 Nov 2021 }}</ref>