On this date (July 7) in the year 1928, the very first pre-sliced bread was sold commercially - the greatest thing since... um... bread. Otto Frederick Rohwedder invented the first loaf-at-a-time bread-slicing machine. He built a prototype machine in 1912 that was destroyed in a fire - it took him 16 years to build the next working machine because the blueprints and designs went up in flames as well. His machine automated the slicing and wrapping process - which was a pretty major time-saver. He applied for patents, and then sold the first machine to a friend named Frank Bench, who was a baker with the Chillicothe Baking Company in Chillocothe, Missouri. They sold their first sliced loaf on July 7, and it proved to be a huge success. Rohwedder sold a few more machines to various bakeries. In 1929 he sold one, and then several more, to Continental Baking Company. Theyd been selling Wonder Bread nationally since 1925, and in 1930, they started selling Wonder Bread as a sliced bread - the first to do so on a national scale. Within a year, pretty much every national bakery was selling sliced bread - and by 1933, American bakeries sold more loaves that were sliced than unsliced. Purists and traditionalists mourned this development, but it was generally seen as an example of American ingenuity. This piece of ingenuity had a gigantic effect on the economy in the US. Since the machine made uniform slices (that were typically thinner than most folks did by hand), people ate more slices at a time, and ate bread more frequently. So bread sales went up a lot. In 1926, the automatic pop-up toaster went on the market - but the easy availability of sliced bread a couple years later sent sales of the toaster through the roof. And sales went up for just about every food that was normally eaten with bread: cold cuts and cheese, jellies and jams, peanut butter, and of course butter and margarine. In January 1943, the US placed a ban on sliced bread as a part of its experiment in wartime conservation. Officials believed that sliced bread used more wax paper in its wrapping than unsliced bread did. Plus, the government had allowed a 10% increase in flour prices, and they tried to insulate the consumer from bearing the brunt of some of that increase - since unsliced bread was cheaper. By March, those officials realized that the savings werent anywhere near as great as expected, so the ban was rescinded... and Americans went back to enjoying their bread pre-sliced. In the 20s, and into the early 30s, the US experienced an outbreak of amylophobia - a fear of starch - that cut down bread sales tremendously, but since the invention of sliced bread, sales have increased fairly steadily. That is, until now... Since 2006, bread sales in the US have gone down almost 13%. For the most part, this is due to 2 main factors: 1) societys push to eat less bread as a part of a carb-aware diet trend, and 2) the increasing incidence of gluten sensitivity that has arisen, at least in part, from increased use of GMOs in our bread manufacturing. Still, bread is the closest thing to a universal staple that we have. Its one of our species oldest foods, considered by most to be humanitys first processed food. Virtually every culture since the development of agriculture has had some version of bread. Many religions across our history have placed some significance on bread. Its been a part of our language forever: he knows what side his bread is buttered on; bread as slang for money; bread & butter as a synonym for the basics; bread & water as minimalist fare; the breadwinner as the one who brings home the bacon; etc. Bread is even part of some the etymology of our words... for example, the words companion and company literally describe those who eat or share bread with you. It turns out that bread really is the greatest thing since sliced bread... Hey, that sounds familiar... Oh yeah, sliced bread is what Im writing about! Today is the 86th anniversary of commercially available sliced bread. In my house, sliced bread has been pretty much replaced by tortillas and naan, but Mrs. Bairds Bread (which isnt available here in Colorado) played a significant role in my childhood. So to celebrate the anniversary, Ill pretend that my tortilla is a piece of toast... I have a good imagination :)
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 15:14:27 +0000
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