Toaster

A toaster is a small electric kitchen appliance designed to toast bread, an act also known as 'making toast.' Prior to the development of the electric toaster, bread was sometimes toasted by placing it in a metal frame and holding it over a fire.

Toaster types

Modern toasters are typically one of three varieties: pop-up toasters, toaster ovens and conveyor toasters.

In pop-up toasters, the bread is inserted vertically into slots (generally only large enough to admit a single slice of bread) on the top of the toaster. A lever on the side of the toaster is depressed, activating the toaster. When an internal device determines that the toasting cycle is complete, the toaster turns off and the toast pops up out of the slots. The heating elements of a pop-up toaster are oriented vertically, parallel to the bread.

By comparison, toaster ovens are small electric ovens with a door on one side and a tray within. To toast bread with a toaster oven, one lays down slices of bread horizontally on the tray, closes the door, and activates the toaster, usually by means of a lever. When the toast is done, the toaster turns off, but the door must be opened manually. Toaster ovens are capable of performing most of the functions of ordinary ovens, but on a much smaller scale.

Conveyer toasters are designed to make many slices of toast and are generally used in the catering industry, being suitable for large-scale use. Bread is added to the conveyor belt made of metal mesh and passed through under heating elements which toast the bread. Production capacity generally ranges from 350-800 slices an hour, making conveyor toasters ideal for a large restaurant that is constantly busy.

In the past, the completion of the toasting operation was determined by a mechanical timer; the user could adjust the running time of the timer to determine the degree of "doneness" of the toast, but the first cycle produced less toasted toast than subsequent cycles because the toaster was not yet warmed up. Newer toasters use a thermal sensor in close proximity to the toast. This allows the first cycle to run longer than subsequent cyclces. The thermal device is also slightly responsive to the actual temperature of the toast itself. Like the timer, it can be adjusted by the user to determine the doneness of the toast.

As with so many home appliances, the fanciest toaster ovens now use computer controls instead of electromechanical controls. Toasters are usually freestanding, counter-top appliances, although some toaster ovens may be hung beneath cabinets.

Sometimes toast gets stuck in a toaster, particularly pop-up toasters, and must be freed manually. As most toasters are in the kitchen, metal knives and forks are typically an easily available tool but are inadvisable to use, due to the risk of electric shock.

Energy consumption

A typical modern 2-slice toaster operates on anywhere between 600 and 1200 W and makes toast in 1 to 3 minutes. A 1000-watt toaster running for 2 minutes uses 1000×120 watt-seconds = 120 kJ (0.033 kW·h).

Rough calculations for the energy required to toast a slice of bread:

A slice of bread weighs about 32 g or about 1 oz and has about 35% water.
The ambient temperature is 25 °C or 77 °F.
The specific heat for dry bread is about the same as water, which is 1 cal/(g °C) (small calories, not food calories) or 4.18 J/(g °C).
Reducing the average water content to 10% by heating the bread to 100 °C → 28 kJ.

History of toasters

The technology that makes electric toasters possible, a nichrome wire that can endure high heat for a long time, was developed by Albert Marsh in 1905. At least two other brands of toasters had been introduced commercially around the time GE submitted the first patent application for their model D-12 [1] in 1909.[2]

The pop-up toaster, which ejects the toast after toasting it, was patented by Charles Strite in 1919. In 1925, using a redesigned version of Strite's toaster, the Waters Genter Company[3] introduced the Toastmaster[4], the first automatic pop-up, household toaster that could brown bread on both sides simultaneously, set the heating element on a timer, and eject the toast when finished.

More recent additions to toaster technology include the ability to toast frozen bread, automatic toast lowering with no lever to push, a single side heating mode to only toast the cut side of a bagel, wifi and bluetooth integration which allow the toaster to page users when the toast is ready, separate operation levers to allow users to toast either two or four slices, and reheating functions which allow toast to be warmed without being burned.

In 2001 Robin Southgate from Brunel University in England created a toaster that could toast a graphic of the weather prediction (limited to sunny or cloudy) onto a piece of toast. The toaster dials a pre-coded phone number to get the weather forecast [5] [6].

Flying toasters

Toasters have, on occasion, been portrayed as having wings. The first instance of this was probably the cover art for Jefferson Airplane's album Thirty Seconds Over Winterland. Later, Berkeley Systems used similar animated flying toasters as one of the screensavers in their popular After Dark product. A competing screensaver by Delrina Corporation later parodied this theme.

Toasters in fiction

In the 1988 computer game Wasteland one of the skills you learn is 'toaster repair.' During your adventure, you find several 'broken toasters' which, by the use of this skill, will produce useful items like power packs or conventional ammunition.

In a 1980's children's story and film, The Brave Little Toaster, the main character was a talking toaster who embarked upon an adventure with his friends, which included a vacuum, an electric blanket, a lamp, and a radio.

In "The Puppy Episode" of Ellen, where Ellen DeGeneres came out of the closet, is a joke that if the character Susan (portrayed by Laura Dern) was unsuccessful in recruiting Ellen to become a lesbian (which at this point in the episode she was denying), Susan would "have to call national headquarters and tell them I lost you. Damn, just one more and I would have gotten that toaster oven".

In the BBC sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf there is a talking toaster called Talkie Toaster. It annoys other crew members by incessantly offering them toast.

In The Langoliers, a short story by Stephen King, one of the characters wraps a toaster up in a towel and uses it for a crude bludgeoning weapon.

On the acclaimed children's TV show "Sesame Street", two of the neighbors, Carlos and Maria, own and operate a toaster repair shop. Many of the guest stars on the show have arrived on Sesame Street to have their toaster repaired or make some comment therin.

In Battlestar Galactica (Re-imagining), the word "toaster" is used as an epithet referring to the Cylons, both as a reference to the chrome appearance of the original Cylons, and as a reminder that humans see them as mass-produced machines, rather than as individuals.

In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer repeatedly gets his hand stuck in a toaster, and damages it in order to free himself. He repairs the toaster, but has inadvertently transformed it into a time machine which sends him back in time (to a period when dinosaurs were alive) when he uses it to toast bread.

In the movie, "The Suicide Kings", Dennis Learey's character beats a friends abusive father with a toaster after a fiery but calm speech about his own abusive father.

Toasters in computing

Toasters are commonly used as fictitious peripherals for device driver sample code; for example, the Microsoft Windows Driver Development Kit includes a Toaster sample driver.

The original Apple Macintosh computer was sometimes referred to derogatorily as a beige toaster.

The Commodore 1541 floppy disk drive was also known among users as the "toaster", due to its internal power source which generated some heat.

The Video Toaster was a sophisticated video-creation product for the Amiga personal computer.

Toaster is slang for a recordable optical disc drive; Roxio Toast is one program which works with such devices. The term coaster toaster is also seen, particularly in reference to a drive with a high rate of recording errors.

In 2005, Technologic Systems, a vendor of embedded systems hardware, designed a toaster running the NetBSD Unix-like operating system as a sales demonstration system [7].

Toasters are sometimes jokingly added to noticably long lists of computer systems to which a piece of software has been ported.

Music

An alternative rock band named Frances' Dogfish sung a song about toasters as a parody of Plug In Baby by Muse. It is available for listening here: http://www.francesdogfish.bebo.com

External links

The Toaster Museum (toaster.org): A detailed site devoted entirely to toasters and their history
The International Central Services Toaster Museum (toastermuseum.com): A collector's site devoted entirely to toasters and their history. Hundreds of pictures, superb design.
The German Toaster Museum (toasters.de): A nice, informative site devoted entirely to toasters and their history
History of the Toaster - Gizmohighway Technology Guide
History of the electric toaster
How Toasters Work (Howstuffworks.com)