Dualit Toaster

However, in order to create an electric toaster proved to be quite difficult. A wire needed to be invented that could be heated quickly to a red-hot temperature, and to be able to do this repeatedly without burning out or becoming brittle and breaking. Thomas Edison worked on this, inventing one for the vacuum of a light bulb, but a toaster needed an element that could function in open air. In March 1905, a young engineer named Albert Marsh applied for a patent on an alloy of nickel and chromium, which came to be known as Nichrome. In July 1909, Frank Shailor of General Electric submitted his patent application for the D-12, considered to be the first commercially successful electric toaster. Charles Strite (who patented his design on May 29, 1919) invented the first pop up toaster, the Toastmaster, which arrived on the scene in 1926. It stirred so much public interest that March 1927 was named National Toaster Month in the US. From the 1940s to the 60s the pop up toaster took over as the standard design. Extremely well made and durable, toasters from this time are still hard at work in many homes today. .
             Max Gort-Barten designed the Dualit toaster in 1946. This Swiss designer was stranded in Britain at the beginning of World War II. With his redundancy from the RAF; Gort-Barten used scrap metals from an army surplus store to create the first Dualit toaster. He hand made the toaster in London and up until a few years ago ran the Dualit Group with his son. The design of the Dualit toaster has hardly changed since this time. It was initially made for commercial purposes but it became popular for home use, due to its classical styling and durability. Each is still handmade a few feet from where the first was created.
             The Dualit toaster has become a symbol of good British design. Despite the Swiss nationality of the designer, he was clearly influenced by a number of different trends that were occurring at the time.