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# I looked away for one second and the toast is black
- URL: https://www.thefrictionlog.com/06600/
- Published: 2026-10-01T22:08:22.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-12T15:17:24.000Z
- Description: Filed: 1909 · Solved: 1926 in Minneapolis · the pop-up toaster · by Charles Strite, factory mechanic
- Author: The Clerk
- Tags: Solved, #solved 1926

*The cook is frying eggs, pouring coffee and making change. Nobody is watching the bread.* — Factory worker, 1919

The first electric toaster that sold well, General Electric's in 1909, did one side at a time. Somebody had to stand there, flip the bread and pull it out. Charles Strite was a mechanic at a factory in Stillwater, Minnesota, where the cafeteria was known for burnt toast. So he built one that did both sides at once, shut itself off on a timer and lifted the bread up when it was done. He patented it in 1921 and sold it to restaurants first. The home model, the Toastmaster, came out in 1926, two years before anybody sold sliced bread. So the next time somebody calls a thing the best since sliced bread, the toaster was there first.

**Noted**: American toaster sales went from 400,000 in 1922 to 1.2 million in 1930.