Industrial dryers don't have electrical cords that beefy nowadays!
We started this site under the name “AtomicToasters” for quite a few reasons. Of course, the obvious reason is that “toasters” has become something of a slang term for a piece of technology. But there is more to it than that. We have a philosophy that sometimes the advance of technology for the sake of progress is not necessarily an improvement. In fact, sometimes the old ways of doing things worked just fine, and the toaster is a perfect example. Yes, it’s improved, and more modern now. Many have multiple buttons to try and get you a perfect piece of toast every time. Some have computer controls; some have heat regulation. Some even have fans to try and get an even toasting over the entire slice. But the majority work exactly the same way as they did 50 years ago. And many people are still using the very same toaster as they were using years ago. Why? Because some things just can’t be improved upon.
Of course, having said that, someone is going to come out with some kind of laser toaster that makes everything else obsolete. But until then, we’re happy with ours just the way it is.
[Image source: Flickr]
Toastmaster! How many families had one of these in the kitchen forever?
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Man, I brought half a bagel from home today, and the toaster at work way over-cooked it. I was standing to the side of it, checking out the paper, and then looked over and my bagel was sadface. It tasted like burnt fail, with 1/3 less fat cream cheese.
In my technical writing class in college we had to run and experiment on burnt toast and bacon then write a report on it. The experiment was kind of idiotic because the professor wanted us to focus on the report. Most delicious experiment ever.
During my research for our report, I found this: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gmbrown/tart/
The Flaming Pop Tart Experiment
I propose that Toasters replicate this experiment to ensure it is still applicable 15 years later.
Great link. Thanks for sharing! I wonder if you could get the author to write a few articles in the same style for AT…
I assume the laser toaster will have WiFi so I can use my iPad to upload different designs for the laser to burn into my toast. Now that's laser printing!
Oh wait I don't have an iPad. It's on my "things I don't have that make people think I'm strange" list, right between smartphone and DVD player.
What always amazes me is how far ahead of the rest of the world the United States was up until the 1980s. I had likely never seen a toaster until my family drug me to Canada in the early '80s. Before we discovered the bounty of electrical kitchen devices available in Simpsons, Eatons, Sears, and Canadian Tire, we just used the oven to make toast.
When I was in Germany my friend told me to visit a kitchen appliance store. Wow. I was impressed. They have some seriously cool tech for kitchen appliances. Some of it is driven by the fact that they have limited space and need to be creative, and by the fact that the typical German takes their entire kitchen (cabinets and all) when they move so they keep their appliances a lot longer.
We are starting to see some of that here. The dishwasher my wife wants when we remodel the kitchen of Project House Hell is a Bosch unit and is pretty damn slick.
I know, I can barely cook but I can spend hours looking at German and Scandinavian kitchens. The Northern Irish kitchens I frequent still only come equipped with a stove, a fridge, a cold draft, and a large angry religious woman.
Devo had the same idea on their 1978 "Satisfaction" video.
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I currently have a broken example of this master piece of a toaster: the Sunbeam Radiant Control Toaster
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It is the most polite toaster I have ever used. There is not pressing of levers or anything. You just put the bread in the slot, the toaster automatically lowers the bread on it's own and slowly raises them when the bread is correctly toasted. It also does not use a timer, it measures the temperature of the toast to know when it is done. And is was first made in the 40's. You do not get the satisfying twang of a conventional toaster but I still love it to death. I just need to figure out how to fix it…
We took delivery of our 18" GE Spacemaker dishwasher two weeks ago, and mounted it in the kitchen cabinets in the guesthouse addition that day. We have electrical up and running, but no water (hot or cold) plumbed yet until we finish laying the floor, so in the meantime it just sits there looking pretty. I can hardly wait 'til we can do dishes…! http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1280163&…
My wife and I were walking around in Sam's Club today and she saw a shiny stainless steel Blender she obviously coveted. When I asked her what was wrong with ours, she replied, "You mean the one given to my parents as a wedding gift?!?!"
Her parents just celebrated their 50th Anniversary, so when our kids move out I'll maybe give it to one of them and then we can buy a new one.
So there's something wrong with it, just because it's 50 years old? In a year or so, she'll have people coveting that one, and then she'll regret that she ever got rid of it.