Ostomy Memories of Technology

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HenryM

NEW TECHNOLOGY IS CONSTANTLY REPLACING old technology.  Typewriters are fading into history, sadly, replaced by computer keyboards.  Gone are iceboxes, mimeographs, dial phones, transistor radios, and phone booths.  It’s a good thing Superman came along when he did.  Velcro seems to be in the process of attempting to replace buttons, snaps, and zippers. Alexa, a voice-controlled virtual assistant, does everything but wipe your runny nose for you. Still, there is one mechanical device that has persisted through the whole of the 20th Century and now well into the 21st.  What is that in the photo?  It is the first commercially available toaster in 1909 by GE.    It only heated one side of the bread at a time and required a person to manually flip it for toasting both sides.  It would be ten more years before the first automatic pop-up toaster hit the market, and the humble toaster still sits in kitchens today.  It has undergone upgrading here and there, but the basic item hasn’t really changed much.  And they last seemingly forever, unlike another home appliance that occurs to me, the vacuum cleaner, which I am always having to repurchase every few years when the one I have gives out.  Then again, too much technological advance can be annoying.  My new car, with its computer, advanced sensors and cameras, tells me when I’m moving out of lane or not keeping my eyes on the road.  I’ve yet to see a toaster that tells you it prefers wheat to rye, but perhaps that’s next.

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Killshot_24523

Paper... paper is still a widely used storage medium. It will probably never be completely replaced.

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HenryM
Reply to Killshot_24523

Even tho' I'm a tree hugger, I sure hope you're right.  

AlexT

Since I'm technologically stupid, I love my toaster. If it was any more advanced, I'd be eating peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast.

HenryM
Reply to AlexT

Nothing wrong with peanut butter sandwiches.  I'd be eating PB&J every day if my wife wasn't monitoring my meals like a hawk.  

 
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Abefroman1969

I just bought my first toaster oven, it's fancy. I still have my 4-slice pop-up toaster on the counter though, it's hard to let go.

TerryLT

We used to have these cool old toasters, much like the one you posted, but not electric. There was a two-sided and a four-sided one, for two or four slices of bread, and we used them on the old wood stove on the island before we got the propane stove. I actually found a picture of one just like it, but being technology-impaired myself, don't know how to post it! Those things would have lasted forever. I don't know what ever became of them, but they might just be sitting in an antique shop somewhere.

Terry

HenryM

Here's a quote that I came across after I'd done this post:  "If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster."  Clint Eastwood

And another one:  "Never put a sock in a toaster."  Eddie Izzard  

TerryLT
Reply to HenryM

Actually, I'm not sure that's true anymore, Henry. Sadly, my experience has been that toasters have about the same shelf life as so many small appliances these days. I've had several pack it in on me, usually by one side or the other not toasting anymore.

HenryM
Reply to TerryLT

They're pre-programmed to detect if you're eating too much bread.  

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