Who invented sliced bread?

Well – it looks like a fun and games weekend here at PHOSITA, so via Frugal for Life… who invented sliced bread: 

History is full of great inventions. But, with all due respect to the wheel, none are as celebrated as sliced bread. Because so many enthusiastic consumers enjoy comparing products to the breakfast staple, we thought it high time to give its creator, Otto Frederick Rohwedder, his due.

Mr. Rohwedder was born in the great state of Iowa and is generally credited with inventing the first automatic bread slicer in 1928. Before this, people had to slice their own bread, or, in a pinch, rip off a hunk. According to Food Reference, Rohwedder’s invention was initially poo-pooed by bakers who felt sliced bread would go stale too quickly. Eventually, Rohwedder constructed a slicer that also wrapped the bread, effectively solving the problem.

In 1930, Wonder Bread began selling pre-sliced bread. Other large bakeries quickly hopped on the bandwagon. The trend also helped to boost the popularity of another invention still in use today — the toaster. We wouldn’t call it the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it’s certainly up there.

Source: Ask Yahoo.com

Image via Flickr tagged with a Creative Commons License

You may be interested in reading the following related posts:

1. Patent Rights in under a month?
2. Instant Noodle Inventor Retires
3. When Machines Invent
4. All New PatentFizz – The Good Stuff Always Rises to the Top
5. Quotes on Invention

Posted by Douglas Sorocco, October 28, 2006 at 9:19 pm
Permalink: Who invented sliced bread?
1 Comment

Comments

On November 1st, 2006 at 11:13am Eric said…

Maybe the first to make a buck at it…but not the first to make a machine to slice an entire loaf of bread…how about 1336726, 1420235, 1419511 or 1396290….all 6-8 years prior to old Otto.