The whole internet collaborated to determine what this kitchen tool was.
The whole internet collaborated to determine what this kitchen tool was.
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[] 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.”
Wrought-iron scroll-ornamented toasters appeared in Scotland in the 17th century.[6] Another wrought-iron toaster was documented to be from 18th-century England.
Utensils for toasting bread over open flames appeared in America in the early 19th century, including decorative implements made from wrought iron.
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 which would be able to sustain repeated heating to red-hot temperatures without breaking or becoming too brittle.[citation needed] A similar technical challenge had recently been surmounted with the invention of the first successful incandescent lightbulbs 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.[9][10]
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.