Rerun. Sliced bread had never been automated before Otto Rohwedder unveiled his “power-driven, multi-bladed bread slicer” at Chillicothe Baking Company on July 6, 1928 - after an astonishing SIXTEEN years of self-funded development.

The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune ran a front-page story in response - warning that consumers might find sliced bread “startling,” but that “the typical housewife could expect a thrill of pleasure when she first sees a loaf of this bread with each slice the exact counterpart of its fellows.”

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly trace the origins of this seismic event to the creation of the pop-up toaster in 1921; consider what it means to be ‘an itinerant jeweller’; and reveal the results of a survey of 30,000 housewives on optimum slice-width…

Further Reading:

• ‘The best thing since sliced bread’ (Jim Glynne, The Madera Tribune, 2018):

http://www.maderatribune.com/single-post/2018/07/07/the-best-thing-since-sliced-bread

• Chillicothe, Missouri - ‘The Home of Sliced Bread’:

http://www.homeofslicedbread.com/

• ‘Sliced Bread: Where did it come from?’ on HowStuffWorks’ YouTube channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q7oMc-L57c

For bonus material and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/Retrospectors

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Sophie King.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022.

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