There was a time when nothing was "better than sliced bread."
That would be any time before 1928, because there wasn’t any
commercially sliced bread until July of that year, when the Chillicothe
(Missouri) Baking Company started selling “Kleen Maid Sliced Bread” using a new
machine invented by Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa.
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| Prototype bread slicing machine |
Apparently quite a few housewives (this was 1928, gimme a
break, it was housewives….) believed they were spending way too much time
slicing loaves of bread by hand for their families. Just in time, too, because
the first pop-up toaster with a timer was introduced in 1919. Put sliced bread
right up there with vacuum cleaners (1901) and washing machines (1908) and
electric irons (1882).
By the way, sliced bread was actually banned during World
War II for a few months because the authorities thought the extra heavy waxed
paper bread wrapping could be better used in the war effort. Calmer heads
prevailed shortly after the ban was announced. We won the war anyway.
Copyright © Richard
Carl Subber 2015 All rights reserved.
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