The first electrical appliance turns 100 years old

It came after the electric light and before radio, television, microwave ovens, blenders, juicers, computers - indeed, it was the first electrical appliance to populate the home and one of only a handful of devices in history to achieve ubiquity in advanced nations. Interestingly, although it turns 100 years old this year, it can still be found in more than 90% of American homes. As the first electrical appliance, this also means we are now celebrating 100 years of electrical appliances. Oh, and by the way, can you guess what it is?

Now toast is not new, first having become common about 5,000 years ago in Egypt. Once more the Romans were responsible for the spread the idea of toast across Europe and the word "toast" comes from the Latin "tostum" which means scorch or burn.

The application of electrical energy to standardise the difficult process of scorching bread seemed a natural. Appliances fashioned from wire and designed for holding bread (over a fire) were among the more commonplace kitchen items of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and anyone who has ever toasted bread on an open fire will vouch for the many difficulties associated with the process.

In 1905, all the elements came together to enable the electrical toaster to happen.

According to the Cyber Toaster Museum, a young engineer named Albert Marsh applied for a patent for an alloy of nickel and chromium in March, 1905, which Marsh described in his patent application as having: "...the properties of being very low in electrical conductivity, very infusable, non-oxydizable to a very high degree, tough and sufficiently ductile to permit drawing or shaping it into wire or strip to render it convenient for use as an electrical resistance element."

Two months later, George Schneider submitted a patent application for an enclosed toaster using a resistance wire and the very first rudimentary electrical appliance, the toaster, was born.

The first toaster had a colorful name, "El Tosto," and was manufactured under the Pacific Electric Heating name, which later became Hotpoint Electric.

The first remaining examples of toasters don’t date back quite that far the earliest examples now available dating from around 1909 and from that point ownwards are well chronicled in the pages of the on-line toaster museum and Cyber Toaster Museum. and to document innovation, design and the impact of electricity on the household and family, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History has close to 100 non-electric and electric toasters in its collections, ranging from the 18th century to the 1980s.

The Smithsonian web site has a wonderful section covering many aspects of the toaster such as early advertising and some early examples.

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