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The critical period in matrimony is breakfastime.

-- Sir Alan Patrick Herbert

[T]he unwritten law of wedded bliss is plain for all to read: Don't tempt masculine tempers with burnt toast!

-- 1940 TOASTMASTER Advertisement

This time period was probably the most active for toaster innovation and design. Unfortunately, the Great Depression eliminated many of the smaller manufacturers.

Some of the toasters pictured here are identified by type: Percher, Pincher, Swinger, Flopper, Dropper, Tipper, Pop-up, etc. These names have been applied to toasters by collectors to help classify them.

Over the years competing companies came up with lots of designs for toasters to try to appeal to the consuming public (and to avoid infringing on patents. Some toasters had spring-loaded doors to hold the bread tightly - "Pinchers"; some had baskets to hold the bread slice that could be swung around - "Swingers"; others had doors that flopped open - "Floppers"; tipped out - "Tippers"; or dropped the toast out ("Droppers").

The design that eventually won out and became the most common was the "Pop-up." The first automatic pop-up toaster sold for home use was made in 1926 - the Toastmaster 1-A-1, but it was an expensive luxury for most people and manual toasters continued to be manufactured and sold in the U.S. well into the 1950s.

Interesting facts from Curt Wohleber, Invention & Technology Magazine:

Toaster sales grew from 400,000 units in 1922 to 1.2 million in 1930.
In the late 1920s many bakeries began selling loaves of presliced bread, marketed by one company as Wonder-Cut Bread, which was later changed to Wonder Bread.

Manufacturer: Landers, Frary & Clark
Brand Name: Universal
Model Number: E947

Toaster type: Swinger
Details:
George Curtiss was granted a design patent on this elegant "swinger" toaster in 1922.

Click to view additional photo.

Manufacturer: Beardsley Wolcott Mfg Co
Brand Name: Torrid
Model Number: none on toaster

Toaster type: Swinger
Details:
This toaster has a great brand name: Torrid - and the type of toaster it is gives it the wonderful moniker of Torrid Swinger. A successful model that took its design inspiration from the Universal E947.

Manufacturer: Chicago Flexible Shaft Co
Brand Name: Sunbeam
Model Number: Model B


Toaster type: Flatbed
Details:
Because heat rises Chicago Flexible Shaft Co. decided to make the Sunbeam Flat Toaster - "Flat toasting is 50% quicker" claimed their ad. This was a successful toaster, well made, and was redesigned with a more Art Deco look in the 1930s.

Click to view vintage ad.

Manufacturer: Frank E. Wolcott Mfg. Co.
Brand Name: Torrid
Model Number: Push-O-Matic

Toaster type: Swinger
Details:
Another Torrid Swinger toaster - but this one is the deluxe version: the Push-O-Matic. It offers the option of using push buttons on the end to swing the baskets around rather than turning the baskets with their handles.

Click to view vintage ad.

Manufacturer: General Electric
Brand Name: Hotpoint
Model Number: 115T17

Details:
One very successful Hotpoint toaster was the "De Luxe," designed by Charles P. Randolf and manufactured for at least a decade from 1923 to 1933 (model #115T17, nickel-plated 1923 to late 20s, model #117T17, chrome-plated thereafter).

Click to view vintage ad.
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Manufacturer: General Electric
Brand Name: Hotpoint
Model Number: 157T23


Toaster type: Flopper
Details:
Nickel-plated flopper with On/Off toggle switch on its base. The big dial on the side opens both doors simultaneously.

Manufacturer: Landers, Frary & Clark
Brand Name: Universal
Model Number: E7812

Toaster type: Flopper
Details:
Elegant "flopper" toaster by Landers, Frary & Clark.

Click to view additional photo. | Click to view yet another photo.

Manufacturer: Landers, Frary & Clark
Brand Name: Universal
Model Number: E9410


Details:
One of the most striking toasters ever made, this must have been known as something more elegant than the "E9410". The best name we've heard anyone call this unit is the Sweetheart Toaster, so until some old advertising literature is found that tells us different, that's what we'll call it.

The Sweetheart Toaster operates by the two buttons on its base - one button for each side. Pressing one of the buttons swings the bread basket out perpendicular to the toaster allowing one to insert or remove bread. Release the button and the basket swings back against the toaster. Each subsequent pushing of a button makes the basket rotate in the opposite direction, so that both sides of the bread can be toasted.

This toaster was made and sold in the late 1920s - just before the Great Depression hit - and perhaps it is a good example of the opulence of the times.

Click to view a higher resolution photo.
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Manufacturer: Manning Bowman
Brand Name: Means Best
Model Number: 1226


Details:
Known as the Reversible Toaster this is an ingeniously designed toaster as well as being beautiful. The bread can be inserted on either side of the basket it is rotated on a horizontal axis to get both sides of the bread toasted.

Click to view additional photo.

Manufacturer: Proctor & Schwartz Electric Co.
Brand Name: Proctor
Model Number: 1410


Details:
This Proctor toaster is notable as it is the first automatic toaster to use thermostatic sensing to determine when the toast is done and shut the unit off.

Using thermostatic controls became standard in the 1940s, but until then most automatic toasters used a clockwork-like timing mechanism to determine the length of the toasting cycle.

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Click to view a patent for this toaster.

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