Toaster

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For the English town, see Towcester. For other uses, see Toaster (disambiguation).

A classicly-styled chrome two-slot 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.

A typical modern 2-slice toaster draws 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).

1 Toaster types
2 History of toasters
3 High-tech toasters
4 Other uses of toasters
5 Toasters in popular culture
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Toaster types

Toaster with light-fitting plug ca.1909.

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 usually oriented vertically, parallel to the bread - although there are some variations.

By comparison, toaster ovens are small electric ovens with a door on one side and a tray within. They were invented by John Goodman. 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 cycles. 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, unless the appliance is disconnected from the mains.

[edit] History of toasters

Utensils for toasting bread over open flames go back at least 200 years. Toasters for bread using electricity were invented by Crompton and Company, Leeds, England in 1893.^[1] The technology that makes electric toasters possible, a nichrome wire that can endure high heat, has existed for a long time. 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 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 introduced the Model 1-A-1 Toastmaster,^[3] 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, and a single side heating mode.cxm

Significant ultramodern chrome designs were the Sunbeam T-9 "Half-Round", introduced in 1939, and the General Electric 139T81, produced in quantity from 1946, ^[4]. Some of the classic chrome designs from the 40's and 50's are now being reintroduced into the market.

[edit] High-tech toasters

There have been a number of projects adding advanced technology to toasters.

In 1990 Simon Hackett and John Romkey created The Internet Toaster, a toaster which could be controlled from the Internet.^[5]

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.^[6] The toaster dials a pre-coded phone number to get the weather forecast.^[7]

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.^[8]

[edit] Other uses of toasters

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.^[9]
The original Apple Macintosh computer was sometimes referred to derogatorily as a beige toaster due to its lack of cooling fans.^{[citation needed]}
The Commodore 1541 floppy disk drive was also known among users as the "toaster", due to its internal power source which generated some heat.
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.
Comedian Heywood Banks uses a metal toaster as a percussion instrument in his song entitled "Toast".

[edit] Toasters in popular culture

A toaster appears infrequently as a character in the British sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf. Named Talkie Toaster, it is obsessed with making toast for the crewmembers much to their annoyance. He is eventually smashed to pieces with 14 lb hammer.