A Brief History of Toasters
Toasted bread has been around for thousands of years. In 3000 B.C. Egyptians toasted bread in enclosed ovens. Romans also toasted bread and the word Toast is derived from the Latin word Tostum. Bread was also commonly toasted over an open fire, both at home and at outdoor camps. This was done by either leaving the bread near the flames on a rock or by holding the bread near the flame on a stick. Aside from changing the texture and taste of bread, toast had a more practical use in the past. Toasted bread would last much longer than untoasted bread, an important consideration for farmers storing food or armies on the march.
As the ages passed and metallurgy became more common, specialized tools were developed to toast bread. Long toasting forks, stand up metal frames that held toast near a fire and wire baskets with long handles were all used. Once gas stoves were introduced, stovetop toasters became popular. All these were definitely improvements to the “bread held on a stick over a campfire” method, but still lacked quite a bit in convenience and efficiency.
Electric toasters solved this problem. They didn’t require starting a fire and could be easily turned on and off when they were needed. The earliest attempts at creating electric toasters occurred in the late 1800s. Running electricity through iron wires caused the wires to radiate heat that then toasted the bread. The problem was that when the wires were heated enough to toast the bread, they would often start to melt. This was solved when Albert Marsh developed a nickel / chromium alloy that was able to heat to the necessary temperatures without melting.
Using the newly developed nickel/chromium (or Nichrome) wire, the first successful electric toasters were produced just after the turn of the century. These early toasters usually consisted of heating elements in the center of an open metal frame. The bread rested against each side and needed to be manually turned over to toast both sides. There were exceptions to this style using two heating elements, but they were uncommon.
Electric toasters became very popular over the next few decades, especially when sliced bread became available in the 1920s. Although many toaster designs were introduced, the pop-up toaster became the most popular model, and remains so to this day (excluding toaster ovens).