Editing Toaster (section)

=== 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>