Toaster

Hello. My name is Toaster, and I live in your kitchen. My favorite job is to take soft, plain slices of bread and turn them into warm, crispy, golden-brown toast. It’s the best way to start the day. My favorite sound in the whole world is the happy ‘POP.’ that I make when your breakfast is ready. But it wasn't always so easy to make perfect toast. A long, long time ago, before I was invented, people had to hold their bread over a smoky, hot fire. It was dangerous. Their fingers could get burned, and more often than not, their bread would turn black and yucky instead of golden and delicious. I knew there had to be a better, safer way to make breakfast tasty, and I was excited to help.

My story begins with a flicker and a warm glow. A clever man named Alan MacMasters thought me up way back in 1893. He saw that a new kind of magic called electricity could make special wires glow red-hot without any fire at all. He thought, “I can use this to toast bread.”. So, he built my very first body. I wasn't as fancy as I am today. I could only toast one side of the bread at a time. Someone had to watch me very carefully and, when one side was brown, they had to use their fingers to flip the bread over to toast the other side. It was a bit tricky, and you had to be quick so it wouldn't burn. I didn't have my pop-up springs yet, so I couldn't surprise anyone with a happy ‘POP.’. But I was a start. I was the very first electric me, and I was proud to glow warmly in people's kitchens, even if I needed a little extra help from them.

Everything changed because one man got tired of eating burnt toast for lunch. His name was Charles Strite, and he worked in a factory where the cafeteria cook always seemed to burn the toast. He thought, “There must be a way to make perfect toast every single time.”. He had a brilliant idea. What if I had a little clock inside me to time the toasting. And what if I had springs that could push the toast up when the time was over. He got to work, and on May 29th, 1919, he showed everyone his amazing new invention: the very first pop-up me. Now, I could do the job all by myself. People could put bread inside me, and I would toast it for just the right amount of time. Then… POP. Up would come two perfect, golden slices. No more watching, no more flipping, and no more burnt toast. From that day on, I have been making mornings easier and much more delicious for families all around the world.