Two Men That Left Their Mark On The World

Know who Otto Rohwedder is? Not many people do, not even people who owe their livelihoods to him.

It's doubtful he was ever really well known, even when his invention, a device he sold his three successful jewelry stores to fund the development of, became, first, a machine that had a such a pronounced effect on an entire industry that companies re-named the new, improved products they were able to produce with it "Wonder" and "Miracle", and second, the thing that everybody has since compared all the latest and greatest inventions to.

Mr. Otto Rohwedder invented sliced bread. Well, the commercial bread-slicing machine, that is.

Somehow, as he was working on watches and jewelry in one of his stores before the outbreak of WWI, he got the idea that he could build a machine that could not only automatically slice a loaf of bread, it would wrap it up ready for the shelf, too.

It took him almost 15 years of trial and error, but in 1928 he saw his first machine at work in the Chillicothe Baking Company in Chillicothe, Missouri. 

By 1932, the popularity of bread sliced to a consistent standard made a machine Mr. Charles Strite patented in 1921 very popular. Mr Strite, for reasons all his own, had designed and built a pop-up toaster in the early 1920's that necessitated careful slicing of a loaf of bread, least a thick slice lead to a house fire.

Mr. Strite, I hope, sent Mr. Rohwedder a thank you card.

For those of us who love toast, the toaster is, oddly enough, the best invention before sliced bread.

All hail Mr. Rohwedder and Mr. Strite, providers of two of the most essential elements to a delicious breakfast...and late night snacks (especially with peanut butter).